By Carol Stiffler
Guys, I think I know what happened.
(Not really. This entire piece is based on a true story, but is just for fun.)
I was at a Girl Scouts meeting last Thursday, and our first March snowstorm (the kid sister storm, for sure) was brewing. The girls were hoping school would be canceled the next day. I was interested in that, too – a little more rest in the morning, a three-day weekend. A nice idea.
One Girl Scout had a plan to bring on the snowstorm and summon that three-day weekend.
“You put a white crayon on the windowsill,” she told me. “Put a spoon under your pillow. Wear your pajamas backwards. And put ice in the toilet. Here, I’ll write it down for you.”
The clever, resourceful young lady grabbed a scrap of paper left from a crafting project the group had been working on, and wrote what you see here.
I put it in my purse and forgot about it. Sorry, friend.
It’s clear, though, she did those things. All of them. And, being a Girl Scout, she did them well. I hope she earns a badge from this.
School was indeed canceled Friday in Newberry, Curtis, and Engadine.
What I’m guessing happened next is she forgot to take the crayon off the windowsill. She left the spoon under her pillow. It was impossible to remove the ice from the toilet, and she must have worn her backwards pajamas all weekend.
Because you know what happened next.
The eternal snowglobe. The wrath of Elsa. Meteorological March madness. Total annihilation of spring dreams. Ninety-nine emotional inches of snow.
Our two-day, Girl-Scout-inspired blizzard blessed us with more than two feet of snow and three more days off school. The Mackinac Bridge shut down repeatedly. Our traveling sports teams and their fans had a heck of a time getting across the bridge to compete in their championship tournaments. At one point, I had one friend trying to go north over the bridge and two friends trying to go south over the bridge, and they were marooned for half a day on the wrong side of the Mighty Mac.
It was dramatic and exciting, if you didn’t have to shovel or drive.
We had known it was coming – weather warnings started days in advance and came from many sources. Our state-level politicians posted a message on Facebook, urging us to take care and telling us they were praying for us. That made me feel sparkles of anxiety.
At my house, we stocked up on water, bread, butter, and chips. We planned for a power outage by filling the bathtub with water for flushing and filling all our cups with water for drinking before stashing them back in the cabinet. We put a pile of firewood on the porch. Charged our devices.
As the storm raged, we felt lucky for every hour without a power outage, and every time we used the running water.
We never did lose power at my house, but the blizzard certainly did her thing.
We made it. On Tuesday morning, we woke to the sound of the Luce County Road Commission sending a massive snow thrower up my road. It was hours earlier than we imagined we’d be plowed out, and we were very grateful. That crew must have worked through the night. The arc of powdery snow that shot across the morning sky worked better than coffee to perk us up. That was pretty darn cool.
So far, I haven’t heard of anyone getting hurt in this storm, which is wonderful.
Now, that’s how a Girl Scout does a snow storm. Carefully, efficiently, and successfully.
And yes, she’s selling Girl Scout cookies right now.
You can reach Carol at cstiffler@mynewberrynews.com.
