Blessings of a snow day

I first wrote this back in 2007 - during a snow day when I was employed in a regular day job (if being a tech director could ever be called "regular"). Today, over 15 years later, I vicariously living the pleasures of a snow day for those in schools as both students and employees. You don't work in education for 43 years without a little emotional residue! 

So for all current students and staff, enjoy!

The Mankato Area Public Schools are closed today on account of snow. 

You have to work in schools and live in the northern parts of the United States to understand the real meaning of "snow day."

• It is God giving you an additional day of life.
• It is looking out the window and seeing beauty in the snow and wind rather than work.
• It is getting to that movie, that book, or that task that would have eaten up a weekend - guilt free.
• It is digging out and fixing a favorite soup recipe that takes too long to make on most days.
• It is not being jealous of your colleagues'  weather in the South - for at least one day.
• It is remembering the delight of having a snow day when you were a kid.
• And the best thing - it is not setting the alarm knowing tomorrow will be a snow day as well. 

Do I sound insufferably smug and happy? Good. I am. 

Spontaneity or security in travel

Adventure without risk is Disneyland. 
                                           Doug Coupland 

The photo above was taken at 5:30am on a December morning on a trip to the Philippines in 2019. I had just stepped off an overnight bus from Manila to Banaue. I did not have a hotel reservation. I started walking toward what I thought was the center of this small town, backpack on my shoulders.

Luckily, I met a friendly fellow doing early morning street sweeping a couple of blocks further on. He recommended a small hotel just a few doors away. Also luckily, the hotel had a night shift clerk who was awake and got me into a room. Uyami's Green View Lodge became my home for the next few days as I hiked the ancient rice terraces of the area with a local guide recommended by the hotel. (Original post can be found here.)

By contrast, on my most recent travels to Europe, I left little to chance. I had my hotel rooms booked. I spent most of my time on a guided boat/bike trip that provided not just a place to stay, but my meals and short tours as well. One thing I did not plan for was reservations needed for major museums in Amsterdam. So I missed out on what would have been my fifth or sixth time visiting the Van Gogh. 

I am now engaged in planning a return trip to the Philippines and a cycling trip along the Mekong River. The cycling trip is organized. Hotels/hostels are booked pre- and post-trip in Siem Reap and Saigon. Flight reservations (most of them) are made. I have informed my brother and sister-in-law when they can expect me to be at their home in Paponga for a couple days.

But I still have some blank spaces on my travel calendar. The 10 days between the time I leave my brother’s place and need to be in Siem Reap is a time for me to explore - this time the islands to the south of Luzon instead of the rice fields of the north. So I am debating just how much planning I should do for my wandering days. Book a resort now - or just show up and hope for the best?

While I have been lucky at times (staying at the wonderful Izhcayluma Retreat in Vilcabamba, Ecuador), I have been growing increasingly anxious about spontaneous travel. While in my 30s, I could accept sleeping on a beach in Hydra, Greece, but I don’t know how my somewhat older body would respond to sand fleas and drunken revelers now. Will the places I am traveling be booked up like the Van Gogh museum or will they be at 15% capacity like the Galapagos cruise ship last year?

Perhaps I need to face reality: that I will never have the backpacker mentality of those 20-somethings I’ve encountered in small hostels in Frankfurt or Santa Marta or Vientiane - those whose youthful travels are carefree, endless, and, most probably, quite memorable -who can still sleep on a beach or in a bunk bed when necessary.  While I can quite easily stuff what clothes and toiletries I need into a backpack, my anxiety about where I might next find a room does not fit.

I guess I just talked myself into booking a few more reservations…