Tips from actual people who live where it snows. Basically, my family.
stolen from my mother’s Facebook wall
These are their answers from when I asked how they deal with work and such when they are snowed in.
From Aunt Kathy:
So, if it snows during the week (and is too bad to drive in) – I WFH (as long as no power outage, in that case I read and nap). But because we are hardy New Englanders, it takes a lot of snow and ice not to drive to work.
Assuming impending storm, we hit the store along with every other crazy person in New England (though we don’t freak out assuming we will never get another loaf of bread…….). We get ingredients for soup and chili, etc.
The first few storms I look forward to as an opportunity to be forced to turn off and hunker down. After that – totally over it and pray for groundhog to do the right thing (I always forget which is the early spring.)
When we get the snowpocalypse, I amuse myself by telling people (and sending pictures) in California that the car next door is covered. There is really nothing else to do when we get feet and feet of snow.
We have a plow guy come by to get us out – and some funny facts this is our third company: The first one was a tad shady and they broke their truck in our driveway and left the plow there for days AND we had to drive them in a blizzard to the West Haven Walmart. The second one came by, plowed out the driveway after we called a million times (4 feet of snow) and left the sidewalk and other areas without shoveling. The third one we had came over to shovel and plow and one of the guys got into a full on fist fight with the neighbors across the street – something about his grandmother.
Dogs get coats (not because we are crazy dog people but because their hair gets snowballs and they melt all over the house). They don’t like going out in feet of snow anymore than we do.
Nice part of snow, is the air feels different and cleaner. Its nice for Christmas. And great for moisture as we hit spring.
Oh. And have a fire. Fires are best when snowing outside.
stolen from my mother’s Facebook wall
From my mother:
Snowing but navigable: go to work.
Snowing but too dangerous to drive: get permission to work from home or take personal time.
IF work closes – stay home (like in the blizzard when the university actually closed for the first time since 1978)
When work is open but roads are still pretty much closed…have husband take me to work in the 4wheel drive vehicle.
If home and NOT working: read, make soup, bake, sew, watch movies.
From my mother’s quilting friend Kim:
When we get snowed in we stay home and work. We are working remote from everyone anyway! Things that we like to do when the weather is cold and not conducive to going out are:
Read
Quilt
Clean out a closet and drawers
Plan a vacation somewhere warm
Play board games and cards
Fix a box with cards for each month and address and stamp the envelopes
Catch up on correspondence – not email
Invite people over for cocktails or brunch just for a visit
It doesn’t have to be snowing to do these – but when you are a captive audience in your own house – makes it harder to find something better to do!
From my mother’s quilting friend Lauretta:
I can always remote desktop and continue to work regardless (in spite of?) the weather. I try to do that every Monday as it is—I take a sadistic delight in looking at my bedside clock at 7am, turning over and going back to sleep realizing that most poor suckers are getting ready to go to work.
But probably what I’d really rather do is curl up in my warm bed and re-read Moby Dick (the most amazing piece of American literature ever written) straight through.
From my mother’s friend Debbie:
I paint the inside of my house on snowdays. I know, call me crazy but I always have the next room or project in my mind.
From my cousin Shannon who works in Manhattan:
Public transportation is both a blessing and a curse because subways (generally speaking) run regardless of what the roads looks like. Trains coming from Long Island, Jersey, and CT though are a different story; those are typically very delayed. So during snow storms the people that live in the ‘burbs tend to work from home and the people in the city trudge into the office.
But there can be some division there as well. The more junior people are basically lower on the totem pole and if they live in the city they really have no choice but to head into the office. Now that I have minions working for me I have the luxury of choosing to WFH if I would like to but many times I don’t. The office is actually pretty quiet and I am able to get a lot done on those days so I make my way in. But you better believe I am taking my sweet time getting there in the morning and leaving early in the afternoon. And I wear casual clothes instead of my normal business attire – sadly I get a lot of joy from that. But it really is needed. Imagine climbing over the largest pile of (dirty, disgusting, NYC snow plow driven) snow in tights and skirt, battling the crowds to run into the subway. While hilarious to watch, not fun to do. Also the trains are so very gross, melting dirty snow everywhere and more crazies taking refuge.
If I were to stay home, I would have to work – I wouldn’t take a personal day for that since I have remote access. But if for some reason I didn’t have to work, there are only two things I need: wine & Netflix.
From my aunt Karen:
Weekday – I’ll generally just do a work from home although the truck can get thru anything. Once or twice I’ve gone into the office.
I’ll shovel and curse and wonder why we haven’t bought a blower yet.
Dogs LOVE to play in the snow so there’s a lot of running around the backyard; throwing snowballs. After that we have to towel them off or it’s a wet nighmare in the house.
Fire is a must plus soup. No matter how deep the snow I certainly expect my NYTimes to be delivered and if it doesn’t show up I get annoyed.
Naps of course and reading.
From my cousin Carrie, who is a physical therapist:
Usually I have to go to work if it snows. Patients cannot come to my house so i do not get the opportunity to work from home. And all it takes is one patient saying that they are willing to come in to keep me at work.
If I do get stay home i usually bake with the kids. Shovel the walk way and play in the snow. Kori [her dog] loves to go for walks in the snow.
And nothing beats a day of playing board and video games.
The short version of this post appears on Mint.com: 5 Tips for Cheap Fun in the Snow
Note: no men represented here. Are you a man? Would your answer be much different?
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