Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Even More Unexpected, Especially in February

This is the view from my front room window today.

It's supposed to get worse. The weather report says only(!) 4 to 6 inches of snow accumulation, but the NWS has revised it's Winter Storm Warning to 8 to 10 inches by evening. That's a lot of snow. A lot of greyness out there. A lot of not seeing the sun for way too many days now. Yes, I know it's worse farther north. Minnesotans and Canadians think Chicagoans are wusses about winter. Well, it's your own sore thumb that hurts, isn't it.

February is when I start craving spring. I usually succumb close to March, when the pots of miniature daffodils prove irresistible. At this point, though, I just persist in the greyness. Pretend I like the isolation of cocooning. Tell myself it's knitting season.

Then Marco came home from school yesterday. Look what he brought home.

He's taking "Botany" (the Chicago Public School System, in its infinite wisdom, has decreed that all the Special Ed. courses offered at RGTC must be named to match accepted course names as used at Regular Ed high schools; no, it makes no sense to me either). In the Fall, Botany involved a lot of digging and watering in the school garden and discussion of seeds and basic plant structure. I knew the class had moved inside to the greenhouse as the weather turned into Winter, but I rather took for granted they were still mostly digging and watering.

I wish you could have seen his face as he came down the steps from the bus. I wish, I wish, I wish I had a camera that could photograph my memory. He was so proud he was shining with it, lit up from within.

I can wait for the sun.

5 comments:

Denise Bein Kroll said...

Any bright spot in this weather is a joy. Glad you got such a nice suprise in the midst of our icky weather.

Anonymous said...

How wonderful. Even I might be able to survive a few more winter days with that image in my imaginiation.

Anonymous said...

He sure is something, our Marco. Downright incandescent.

AmyArtisan said...

What a lovely burst of sunshine in your house! :)

This weather is getting so old - tonite I'm @ a hotel near my client out in Naperville instead of dealing with trekking in & out of the city. Lovely. Oh well, at least I have my knitting with me. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, how lovely! I can imagine his smile, how pleased he must be to bring home such a lovely flower.

I have to say I'm a bit envious of the snow. We just got a minor dusting here, and it's just ugly dirty ice everywhere instead of pretty, clean snow. But at least I don't have to drive in it or shovel...