Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 12/9/17> being short sighted and regretting it…

A short night Thursday night for made for a long day for me on Friday; I got back to Houston Thursday night shortly after 10:00PM.

It seems that the American Airlines ground crew in Houston either decided to stay home because of the bad weather or they must have been too involved in having snow ball fights on the tarmac because normally the check baggage will make it to baggage claim before the passengers can maneuver their way through the airport to get there.

Such was not the case Thursday night; it took 25 minutes before bags started filling the baggage carousel. Just what I didn’t want to do, hang around the damn airport waiting on luggage, but sure enough that is what happened.

Driving home was no easy task as the snow and temperatures were both falling fast, it was melting on the roads, but the bridges and overpasses were freezing up. Keep in mind that most Houstonians can’t drive worth a flip when it is raining, ice is a no win situation for sure.

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The only winners in the game of snow and ice are wrecker drivers and body repair shops. I knew I had made the right decision to stay off the main lanes and drive the “frontage roads” that run alongside the high speed freeway lanes. The trip from the airport to the house is about 20 miles, in that stretch there is probably eight bridges or overpasses, four of those had accidents that I could tell from down below because of the flashing emergency lights from the wreckers and cop cars.

By the time I was half way home, the snow was now sticking on the grass and roads. We have a term down here called “black ice”, when the water freezes on the black asphalt, it just looks wet. But it may as well be a skating rink, because cars go sliding everywhere when they hit that stuff. I saw a couple cars doing some loops on the farm to market road near our house. I have spent some time in areas that have more snow and ice so I knew the precautions to take when braking and turning.

I made it home safely, what usually is a 30 minute trip took almost an hour; I had to stop and get a Whataburger and fries. Thank goodness Whataburger is a 24 hour drive through hamburger joint. By the time I had eaten and visited with the wife it was around 1:00AM Friday, I had to be up at 6:00 and at work in my office by 7:00AM. I knew I wasn’t going to get much sleep, but the last think I expected were the girls waking me at 5:00AM asking to know if I would go out to play with them in the snow. Not only “no”, but “hell no”, just because it snowed didn’t change the fact that we still have a bunch a coyotes that run in a pack near us. I know they were around at 1:00 because I heard them howling when I came home. Besides it still pitch black out, the sun isn’t anywhere near rising at 5:00AM.

Now here is where you are about to witness something that doesn’t happen very often, I am admitting that I screwed up. I had a lot of the things contributing to my error in judgment, cold, snow and lack of a goodnight sleep. Regardless of all those circumstances I was the one who screwed up and didn’t take or make the time to play with the kids before I left for work.

The girls had never been able to play in snow, I think they both saw I few flakes fly back in 2009 but it wasn’t enough to even put a light dusting on the hood of the car. So here is what I missed today from being so short sighted and cranky. First: snowman

First: snowball fight

First: snow angels

First: snow handprints

First: pictures with snow backgrounds

First : for our 10 month old boxer puppy to experience the snow and the kids playing with her

So, while that list may not look like much to you, it represents 24 first time things that I will never get to experience with my kids as being their first time events. No, I am not drunk, I know I listed 6 things, but I have four kids, so I went ahead and did the math for you. These are precious moments that the kids will remember for a lifetime, and the old man screwed up and excluded himself from the memories. I couldn’t blame the kids if they were mad at me, I mad too, now that I realized how I screwed up.

To add insult to injury, the snow had melted before I got done and home from work. So now I can’t even talk them into letting me experience my first time with them enjoying their first time with snow and me. I never gave it one once of consideration from the perspective of what I would miss, because it should have been obvious to me this was an important life time event for all of us, being a kid or not.

So, for you younger folks, pay attention; don’t make the same mistake I made when you have the opportunity for firsts’ in your children’s lives, you will regret it. Take it from someone who was dumb enough to make the mistake, but smart enough to realize it, all be it, too late.

Until next time,
@sultnpapper

Photo Credit Note: you can increase the list to 28; the snow pictures are property of Mrs. Sultnpapper and used with her consent for this post.