Snow Daze

Random thoughts during the past six straight days of being snowed in:

1. Scooby-Doo is still horrible. I mean, c'mon, even Coke changed their formula once in the past 30 years. Although, I did enjoy the "Scooby-Doo and the Mystery of the Green Machine" episode -- turns out Shaggy stumbled upon some incriminating emails from some climate change experts and Al Gore totally would have gotten away with global warming if it weren't for those meddling kids.

2. Speaking of global warming, my aching back and freezing toes would beg to differ. Also, I have a freakin' igloo at the foot of my deck.

3. Igloos are awesome. It doesn't matter if you're 4 or 34, there's something fascinating about sitting in a mound of snow that has been hollowed out.

4. Sitting in an igloo is only fascinating for about 3 minutes. Then it's really cold.

5. As the wind howled and the snow blew sideways, I checked the online weather reports. A local media outlet's website had a huge ad for Maui. I thought that was mean.

6. Since Christmas Eve, I have worked a total of 15.5 days. I have been paid for 36. Something tells me though that the Air Force will call in the debt one of these days. Like this fall, when I'll probably be processing claims and dodging mortars in Kandahar. And wishing for a snow day.

7. When you don't have anywhere to go, it's really hard to remember to brush your teeth in the morning. Or after lunch. OK, not until bed time. But hey, I'm not totally disgusting -- I did chew a lot of gum.

8. For some reason, Emily didn't seem to want to kiss me much.

9. Snow blowers have to be considered one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. I put them right up there with central heating, the Internet and the PlayStation 2.

10. We had one day in between storms to buy some necessities. Getting some milk and eggs was huge, but the best thing we picked up was an $8 used PlayStation game. Yeah, I'd say Liam and I got our money's worth out of Hot Shots Tennis.

11. We picked the right neighborhood in which to live. Days and days of shoveling became less of a drudgery and more of a social event thanks to friendly neighbors. It helped that two of the neighbors had snow blowers.

12. It's pathetic, but I admit it -- if I heard the snow blowers going, I'd just happen to pop outside and scrape the shovel loudly a couple of times on my icy driveway. I'm not a total freeloader, though -- I did contribute to the Great Neighborhood Digout with witty comments about the weather as I leaned on my shovel. People really seemed to enjoy me saying "Wow, this is crazy!" and "Boy, is it cold out here or what?"

13. It's good to know that I still have a soul. I literally did an Irish jig every evening when the 6 p.m. news reported that the federal government was shut down.

14. It never looks as cold outside as when your three kids come to you, batting their eyelashes, and ask, "Dad, can we go play in the snow?"

15. It's actually not cold at all when you're crouched behind a snow bank, snow ball in hand, waiting for your oldest son to poke his head out from behind the hedges.

16. What is it about heads that seem to attract snow balls?

17. We went on a ski vacation in Germany last month. It was fun. But I think Emily made a good point the other night when she suggested going somewhere warm next winter. I hear Maui is nice.

18. Every time my neighbor across the street sees me out scraping my shovel on the driveway, he yells, "Welcome to Maryland!" Seriously, every time. It would make sense if it always snows like this here, but this is the snowiest winter ever for this state. Besides, we actually live in Minnesota.

19. There's honestly nothing better than watching your daughter take a bite out of a fistful of snow, or your 3-year-old son holding an icicle like a sword, or your 10-year-old son make fresh tracks through a deep snowy field in a vain attempt to surprise his distracted dad with a barrage of snow balls.

20. Please please please, can I just have one more of these days?