Iced in

Folks I never expected to be iced in when we moved to south Texas from the frigid north. Be that as it may, here I sit icebound and confined to my house. I can’t venture out as the front porch and the back deck are ice covered. However this got me to thinking about how my feelings have changed concerning being iced in.

When I was a youngster, and in school, I loved it. No school today because of icy roads. That announcement was music to my young ears. Hot dog, a day of sliding on the icy sidewalks and streets.

Later, when I became a teacher, I enjoyed an occasional day off to get caught up with some other work that needed to be done. Later, as an administrator, it was up to me to make the decision if we called off school or not. This was not a big problem for me. I called the state highway patrol and asked their advice. If they said it was dangerous, I called off school. Now this is a decision that you are damned if you have school and damned if you don’t. If school is called off it creates a problem for some folks as they have to make arrangements for someone to take care of their children.

I had some people that said that I would call off school if I saw just one snow flake and others who said that I wouldn’t call off school if hell was freezing over!

So you can’t win in that situation. However I decided that if it was the least bit dangerous, I would call off school. The people that thought I called it off too soon would eventually forget about it. However if I didn’t call it off and one child got hurt, they would never forget that I didn’t call it off. A far bigger problem, for me, was that I would never forgive myself.

Now as a senior citizen I hate being iced in! I can’t even venture out because of my age and unsteady underpinning. I might fall and break something or other.

So I have changed from loving to get iced in to hating to be iced in.

Folks, I prefer the loving days!

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