The Play’s the Thing

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By now, you’re probably thinking of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, since the title comes from that play, specifically Act 2, Scene 2:

More relative than this. The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.

But I was actually thinking of what you do when you have downtime (like I did in this post). And in my area, we had oodles of downtime, thanks to the latest snowfall, which brought several inches overnight. What do you do when you barely have electricity (it flickered on and off on the night the snow began to fall in earnest and into the next day), no hot water, bad roads, and no internet, thanks to the snowstorm? (Working at home, I need internet.)

You go outside to scrape the snow boulders off your car, grumbling as you do so, because you can’t get your driver’s side door open. A layer of ice keeps it stuck fast. Same with the passenger door. And you need the scraper on the front seat. You grumble again. Finally, you get the rear passenger door open and crawl to the front over the center console, knocking your rearview mirror askew, and wind up in a tangled heap of boots, coat, and scarf in the driver’s seat. After shoving and shoving, you get the door open.

You scrape. And grumble. And scrape. Rinse. Repeat.

But then, something magical happens. In the distance, you notice the trees as the snow continues to fall. With the snow lacing their branches, they look like Christmas trees. And as you trudge wearily back to your building, you take in the sheer delight of a small child experiencing snow for the first time. His excitement is contagious. You think, The snow is pretty. Winter dresses the earth in frosting with a skill the finest cake decorator can only dream of emulating. (Okay, one tree is a little heavy on the frosting.)

   

This is a scene where you wouldn’t be surprised if a unicorn showed up.

  

As you talk with the child and his grandfather, you realize that going out to play is the thing to do on a day like this.

    

As I headed inside to cocoa it up, a friend texted, It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

It sure is.

If you have snow in your area, what’s your favorite thing to do on a snowy day?

Do you want to build a snowman?

Donatina thinks this chunk of snow looks like a dog.

P.S. The power finally went out for a while, then came back on, only to go out again and on again. Finally got internet early Tuesday morning.

Photos by L. Mare. Donatina Shoppie by Moose Toys.

44 thoughts on “The Play’s the Thing”

  1. Okay, the snow looks pretty, but also way too cold! My favorite thing to do on a snowy day, if I don’t have to commute to the office, is hunker down and spend the day writing and reading. Since I get cold when the temps are in the 70’s, my days of playing outside in the snow have passed. Glad to hear your power and internet has been restored, L. Marie!

    • Thanks, Jill! It was a good day to make progress in my story, though I soon had to give that up when the power went out. However, sitting there in the dark gave me an opportunity to exercise my imagination! 😃😃

  3. I miss the down time we would get in Pennsylvania when snow fell. I recall the quietness of snowfall, traffic reduced to a crawl, and (if we were lucky) a day or two off from school. Thanks for offering me a trip down memory lane, Marie!

    • Glad to provide that, Marian. The schools were closed here. The snowplows got busy in the evening for the morning traffic. But the day was indeed quiet. 😀 😁

  4. Not my favorite thing to do on a snowy day:

    “Finally, you get the rear passenger door open and crawl to the front over the center console, knocking your rearview mirror askew, and wind up in a tangled heap of boots, coat, and scarf in the driver’s seat. After shoving and shoving, you get the door open.

    You scrape. And grumble. And scrape. Rinse. Repeat.”

    My favorite thing to do on a snowy day:

    Spend it in Florida! 😆

  5. Your snow appears to be pretty and that’s a good thing. But living with snow is a whole different thing. Sorry about your power outages, but I’m glad to know you’re taking it in stride. Have another cup of cocoa, my treat! 😃

    • Thank you, Ally! I will! 😁☕
      Yes, living with snow is a different thing. It becomes a grind around January and February. But the kids want snow for Christmas! 🎄

  6. Your beautiful snow pictures almost make winter look appealing! Snow does look beautiful when it is falling, and I love to go sledding with the grandkids, but after about 2 days, I wish it would just vaporize. Instantly. 🙂

    • Sledding is so much fun! One of my brothers used to live in a neighborhood with a large hill of snow. Perfect for sledding. You could even take a trash bag down that hill if you didn’t have a sled. (At the home of some friends who lived near a hill, we took trash bags down the hill. 😁)

  7. I love, love, love to play in the snow. It’s a little difficult with my chronic pain, but I trudge out there to play with Max (our dog). He loves to catch snowballs and trot around in the fluffy flakes. I’m too unhealthy to build a life size snowman, so I sometimes build a mini one and leave it on my back porch table.

    The downside is that it takes 20 minutes to get myself bundled up and booties on Max. He already has a pretty hefty fur coat, but he needs booties to stop him from getting icicles between his paw pads. I put a waterproof jacket on him if it’s snowing, otherwise he gets soaking and then I have to blow dry him when we get inside.

    Gotta go meet dad for lunch. Stay warm and have a sip of cocoa for me. 🙂

    • I remember seeing Max on your blog. He looks like he enjoys life. 😁 I hope you’re keeping warm while at the same time enjoying the snow.

  8. We don’t get snow often, but we had snow in March and I dragged Cyberspouse to the cliff top to see the sun rise; the snow had frozen so it was like an ice rink, nobody sensible was out, but I loved it. However we did not stay out long!

  9. While it was snowing and all was frozen without electric power you got the time to write a delicious post, Linda . I liked and smiled in imaging you crawling into your car to get the tool needed to scratch your windshield
    Sometimes to something no chance may be good !! 🙂 ( French saying ) 🙂
    Love ❤
    Michel

  10. Oh, I remember those days in Albany. And when you described all the outages, I thought you’d gotten feet rather than inches. But it sounds like there was a significant coating of ice along with the snow.

    • Yes. The temperature dropped during the night. And the snow covered such a large area. Some areas got about 13 inches. So many, many people were without power.

  11. For the Chicago area to close schools, it must be really really really bad weather…
    I’m glad you don’t have to attempt to get out in it to commute to work, but then again, one does need to get out and buy stuff like eggs, bread and oh yes, chocolate and coffee once provisions get low!
    🙂
    I love ‘playing’ in the snow…one thing I’ve learned over the years is that when one does that, be sure to stay outside longer than you think is necessary because once you’re inside again and those red thighs thaw out after changing into warm, dry clothes…you’ll not want to go out again. It seems that second round is colder and less forgiving so make the first time ‘count’.
    Hang in there, L. Marie!

  12. I’m glad you finally got into you car, L. Marie, and had to chuckle as I would be in the same predicament of needing to climb over everything else. 🙂
    We have an “eyebrow” window in our upstairs bedroom. A reproduction of Tiffany’s Mermaid floats there. When it snows, at night, I turn out all the lights and watch the snow dancing around the window. Magical moments – until the snow plow comes through. 🙂
    Our daughter’s father-in-law still doesn’t have power, water in the basement, no food in the fridge. My SIL ended up dragging him to their house, mostly for safety reasons. Yikes!
    I’m with Donatina – looks like a dog. 🙂

    • The window you described sounds lovely, Penny. I hope you’ll show a picture of it on your blog someday.

      I’m glad your daughter’s father-in-law was brought somewhere safe. My goodness! How awful about the water in the basement! Is his sump pump at fault?

      • I will show it at some point. Thanks you. 🙂 As to my daughter’s father-in-law, he has a sump pump but hasn’t had electricity since Sunday’s storm. Just checked with her a little earlier and she said the power is finally back on.

  13. The snowy trees are beautiful. One of my favorite snowy day things USED TO BE pulling my toddlers on a sled. Now even my grandchildren are too old for that.

    We seldom have snow anymore–climate change, I guess. Personally I don’t like the cold, but they say that a decrease in the snow pack in the Cascade Mts. will be a problem here for water, agriculture, salmon, etc.

    I’m glad you were touched by something magical and were able to see the beauty on your snowy day.

    • Thanks, Nicki. Yes the climate changes has addled some of the animals too. I saw birds here that normally leave for the winter. They seemed a bit confused.

      How sad about the Cascades! We’re so dependent on water!

  14. Ah, the first snow of winter is always wonderful! By March, not so much… 😉 I do like to build a snowman, but really one needs a child for such things as camouflage, I feel. I think someone should set up a child rental service… Hot chocolate and watching the white cat disappear is a fun alternative.

    • Ha! I’m pretty sure there are many parents would love to rent their children anytime of the year! 😁 Forget baby-sitters. Child renting would be ideal.

      I boldly participate in child-friendly activities without the aid of children (or safety nets). I give people the stink eye, hoping they would dare to comment.

  15. I like driving to work right after it’s snowed. It’s like a dazzling tunnel made of snow and trees.

  16. We don’t have snow days here but we have hurricane days 😬 Instead of cold, we have heat and humidity. When the power is off, that’s my time to read or knit as long as it’s daylight. For us, it’s camping indoors 😀 I’m glad your power came back on and I hope it stays on. Not only is it cold where you are, but the days are a lot shorter. No one wants to camp indoors like that.

    • So true, Marie. Yes, the power came on, but has flickered a time or two, thanks to precipitation and drops in temperature. I have a large supply of candles handy to grab.

  18. Love this sentence: “Winter dresses the earth in frosting with a skill the finest cake decorator can only dream of emulating.” Ah! We lost power too–just overnight.

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