Driving to school on snow patrol

Until 5th grade, my school years were spent in Iowa. Iowa has a much different angle on snow than they do here at Alabama. It had to be pretty bad to cancel school….either snow or temperature. They did it, but it was not very common.

I do remember one time they canceled school due to cold weather. It was -50F wind chill. more than a minute or two and your face started to freeze. That’s considered a bad learning environment anywhere.

It’s funny the things you remember . For instance, when the temperature is in the teens the exhaust from your car tends to condense in the air much longer. It’s been like that this week. And the way the dusting snow drifts back and forth on the interstate in little waves when it’s very cold.

When I was little we would pretend that the taillights on the cars were spaceship engines, and the exhaust condensation was the smoke from some advanced propulsion technology. When it was snowing, the snow looked like the stars of hyperspace in Star Wars. Like many kids of the 70′s and 80′s, much of my daydreaming time was spent pretending I lived in the Star Wars universe.

(Some of our generation still live there. Just go to the back room of any comic shop.)

Some concepts were borrowed from other shows…like the bridge on the way into town was the Stargate from Buck Rogers. And generally the enemies were more Cylon-like (Battlestar Galactica).

So this morning we drove to school in a heavy snow flurry, and I decided to educate my children on space flight. They were in the back seat, so naturally I designated them gunners.

Dad: “when I make this turn were launching right into the heart of the fleet!”

Daughter: “what?”

Son: “OK!”

Dad: “Canon, there are 5 on our left, you get them….Melodi, there are 10 on our right…take ‘em out!”

Son: [laser noises...cool ones] Got ‘em dad!

Daughter: [laser noises...girl version]

Dad: “We’re hit…lost our left engine…diverting power…..I think we’re still going to make it to school”

Daughter: [giggles]

Son: [laser noises]

My son continued to make laser noises for the rest of the trip, taking out any minivan, honda, or SUV that came into the port zone. My daughter moved on to discuss some topics of Meteorology.

Driving my kids to school every morning is one of my favorite things in the world to do. I only have a few more months before they go to different schools and everything changes. I hope to savor every remaining minute of it. Unless we need to put some heat on a Chrysler-borne Cylon. First things first, you know.