Possibly The Last Snow Day of the Season
Posted on March 25, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 39 Comments
And the neighbor children are taking advantage of it.
IN MY YARD.
Which is, of course, just fine. It’s a big yard with an excellent sledding hill on it. Might as well get some use before the snow is all gone.
Up here in the Great White North we’ve had a grand total of *1* snow day. :/ I am disappoint,
Beautiful!! Reminds me of Norway!!
When little Timmy gets a boo boo while sledding, his parents can sue you for the “attractive nuisance” that your sledding hill is.
nice
crazy nice
Dan:
The lack of concern I have for this particular scenario is gigantic.
Man, that looks like fun! For one day only, though, lol.
Last Monday got up to 90 deg F here in San Antonio. Today is 67….
I thought we were through with winter, too. :(
John – Are you related to the Scalzi family on Henton Ave in Covina? I lived next door to John and Gale. Just wondering what ever happened to them, and interested to know if you are related! If you are, send them my email address. Thanks!
Pat Cardamone Los Angeles Pat (Cardi) Cardamone (323) 271- 6088
The Cardamone Company
________________________________
Wait, so the Scalzi Compound(TM) doesn’t have state of the art security drones in place to deal with trespassers/sledding children? I’m shocked and dismayed at the lack of support for the security drone industry illustrated by this post.
(Also, I would have loved having a sledding hill so close to my home as a kid)
Farley: I’m in Houston. It was supposed to get as high as 90 this weekend. Last night we slept with the heater on. Sigh…
Scalzi: So when do you anticipate this all thawing out? I remember Chicago winters where the snow didn’t thaw completely until sometime in mid-May…
What a lovely capture!
It’s going to get into the 50s this weekend, so much of it will be gone by Easter.
It is still your duty to go tell them to get off your lawn (or where the lawn should be); you have an image to maintain. Don’t forget to shake that fist, and, should you feel inspired, use the term “whippersnapper” (more than once).
How have you so far resisted the urge to run out in black socks and bermuda shorts and scream at the kids to get off your lawn?
John,
Yeah – I think I have spent too much time in California.
Do the kids (my set answer cheerfully to the name “Pesky Neighborhood Children”) come to your door and look up at your with big eyes and wide smiles and ask if they can sled on your hill. And better yet – – do they ever ask if you can come out and play? And do you? Being silly with the PNK is a highlight of my day.
John, you did, uh, knock wood, right?
We had an inch or two here in DC. Gone by mid-afternoon; just enough to make the morning a bit slushy underfoot.
leatherneck6693:
They often do ask, yes, although if I’ve given permission recently I think they assume it’s still in effect. And no, they don’t ask if I can come out and play, because I’m a 43-year-old man and they are kids, and that would be weird.
“Hey, you kids! Have fun on my lawn!”
Just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Do you ever *not* give permission, to keep them on their toes?
No.
Good on you for being a benevolent king. As I am in Georgia (the fried chicken one, not the vodka and potatoes one,) I can only imagine the joy of an untouched, sleddable hill such as that.
Oh, the weather outside is frightful . . .
I am sure if we all put our heads together, we can figure some other reason to stay home.
I vote for Bacon Day,
As a writer you have a great imagination! As a weatherman you still have a great imagination. After living here in NE Indiana, about 150 miles from you, that you can’t count winter out until around mid May.
The other Georgia is more wine/grappa (though they call it cha-cha) and fried cheese-in-flatbread than potatoes. But the hills are splendid, and winter mostly stays up in them, which is lovely. You can go and visit winter, but it doesn’t have to move in with you, at least for very long.
I think those are White Walkers out there in the distance. Strum the uke 3 times!
@Herbie I thought penguins, myself. You know, the Ohio Emperor penguins. Very rare. Their eggs make delicious omelettes.
If you run out there TODAY in black socks and Bermuda shorts, you’d have to be crazy.
In central Ohio the big snow turned out to be little more than a dusting. The TV news people seemed rather disappointed.
And my kids are on spring break!
[rant regarding *supposedly* frivolous lawsuits deleted by author to avoid annoying diversion of thread]
Hmm. As a [cough] somewhat-older-than-43-year-old man, I have been asked by kids to join them in play. Though it doesn’t seem weird to me, because it’s in the context of their parents also being present and playing and/or me being a familiar, favored, and trusted relative.
The [Ohio] Supreme Court ruled that property owners have no duty “to eliminate natural
accumulations of ice and snow from sidewalks” or even to warn of the dangers. The court
explained: “Living in Ohio during the winter has its inherent dangers….”
http://justinmuir.hubpages.com/hub/Can-I-be-sued-if-someone-slips-on-icesnow-that-I-shoveled
There’s more there that indicates that slipping on ice on a /California/ sidewalk…. ;p
Nothing weird about playing with the kiddies (well, if your daughter is there and/or the kids’ parents). I think you just don’t like sledding! (which is, of course, unamurican).
Snow… isn’t the stuff that belongs up mountains in civilized parts of the world?
My family used to be the proud possessor of the best sledding hill in town: 25% slope at the top, tailing off nicely… there was even a strangely wiggly drainage ditch at one side that, correctly prepared, made a fabulous ‘cresta run’ (although the wall was a bit close for the speeds we got up to). My whole school class (all 12 of us – we were a bit rural) used to come on good snow days. Sometimes parents too.
The only rule was that you you couldn’t use the field on your own – it was steep, and mostly out of sight of the house.
Our dog used to love it too – he would chase thrown snowballs for as long as anyone would throw them. I used to love winters in that house!
[/nostalgia]
My current house has a small garden, and there isn’t a hill for miles. All the snow melted yesterday. I now want to go sledging. Grump. Have to settle for photos, I suppose. Grump.
This post just reminded me of the Oscar Wilde story The Selfish Giant. Not that John is being selfish (but then neither was the giant in the last part of the story) and not that he’s a giant (I’m sure the deflabbification process is going swimmingly) it’s just the whole, “Come play in my yard!” thing kind of made me choke up. But I’m sure there’s dust in the air here that’s causing my eyes to water.
You southerners are funny. We’ll be getting snow for another month yet.
Wayne
Please please let this be the last snow. We went right from St. Louis Comic Con into spring break, with Dad working from home becase of the snow. Which meant allowing a long delayed b-day sleepover with eighth grade males, involving boys in wildly varying states of puberty. Military school looks good or maybe I could remember enough from religious class to fake my way into a cloistered convent. Anyone want to rent a 13 yo certified genius with ADHD and a penchant for games and puzzles. I’ll pay you five dollars an hour to keep him away from me.
@Karen: I’d take your boy! My guys would enjoy having a fellow game player around. The trick with ADHD boys of that age for us was to make a lovely place for them to play in the basement, and then close the door. They had a blast. (Sound-proof the door and it might work even better!)