Snow Days

Western Suburb of Syracuse, New York

December 16, 2036

 

The door from the garage slammed as Matt came in.

 

“Frig! When is this going to end?” he exclaimed. “I don’t know where I can put the snow anymore,” he said angrily as he took off his heavy winter coat and boots. “Our front yard has to be at least ten feet deep, and the driveway is down to one lane.”

 

“Relax, dear. I’ve made some fresh coffee,” said Janice calmly as she poured two cups of coffee while Matt sat down at the kitchen table.

 

“I checked the forecast earlier,” she continued, “and it said the snow should stop tonight.”

 

“I really hope so. Eight days of heavy snowing. I’ve never moved so much snow in my life! It’s so high that even the snow blower can’t blow it up anymore. The only one who seems happy about that is Pete.”

 

“How’s he doing?”

 

“Our eight year old is having a ball. He’s got himself a couple of long slides down the snowbank to the driveway.”

 

“I’m glad he’s enjoying it. It’ll be a while before he gets back to school. The radio said the state of emergency is going to last another five days. That’s if the snow ends tonight. The road should be cleared shortly after.”

 

“So, we’re stuck here at least another five days. That’s almost two weeks of missed deliveries. I don’t know if the business can take much more. You’d think with global warming that we’d have less snow, not more.”

 

“I remember reading something about that earlier,” said Janice. “Something about, with Lake Ontario being warmer, it puts more moisture in the air causing more precipitation and for later in the season.”

 

“Yea, I remember the floods we had in October. Good thing we’re on higher ground.”

 

“By the way, I spoke with Rachel earlier today. They’re still stuck in the hotel their insurance company put them up in.”

 

“Still?” exclaimed Matt. “You’d think that by now they would have resolved their flooding claim and gotten their house repaired.”

 

“Their insurance company is stalling. Rachel said they want proof a backwater valve was installed and was working properly.”

 

“Damn insurance companies. Those valves have been mandatory for over six years now. Surely someone has those records.”

 

“Rachel says they were included in the homeowner’s package when they bought the house, but those records got lost in the flood. Unfortunately, they stored the records in the basement.”

 

“Bad mistake on their part. Hopefully they can get it cleared up soon.”

 

“By the way, Matt, I went through our house records. You know, the ones stored in our basement. I moved them to our bedroom for now.”

 

“Maybe we should make copies and store them somewhere else.”

 

Janice smiled. “Already working on it.”