The Five Day Rule

I am officially invoking the "five-day rule".

Perhaps you are not familiar with the "five-day rule".

You're familiar with the time limit for occupying the lanes in basketball; you may even be aware of the "five-second rule" which holds sway over all fumbled morsels. It's nothing like that.

Although it sounds like a good idea - the "five-day rule" doesn't even apply to how many times a guy can recycle articles of clothing prior to the "sniff" test.

The five day rule applies to snowfall - and particularly snowfalls in the South, where we really know how to appreciate them!

I think that a few generations back, my family was quite superstitious, so I grew up hearing little anecdotes for most occasions. Some were based on solid, scientific facts. Others were just old wives' tales (I guess that is a sexist remark but it's in the Bible).

Anyway, the five-day rule states that if a snowfall stays on the ground for five full days, it will snow again within a specified time period. I don't actually recall how long that specified period is - but I think it may be one week.

In the South where snow means an automatic holiday - I held a firm belief throughout my life - in the five-day rule.

I remember once when I lived in Morristown, Tennessee, the rule really worked! We had a little namby-pamby snowfall that may have garnered one day out of school. But temps stayed on the cool side and in some guarded shady areas a small portion of the snow endured the required five days.

Within a short time BOOM - or to quote my wife's blog "Wham-Bam!" - we had a bodacious snowfall that was good for almost a full week of no school.

I know that since I am now an adult, I have some obligation to assume the role and act as if I do not like snow ... and that I am extremely frustrated with all the brouhaha and the lost productivity that occurs with every snow day. But I just don't have it in me.

I have noticed that of late, it is much more fashionable for adults to get exited about snow around here. In our latest brush with arctic ecstasy -I heard a weather-person - probably a licensed "meteorologist" even - say that some "lucky" areas would receive over one -inch of snow!! Implying that the rest of us poor slubs would only get a "dusting" the white fluffies.

Why when I was coming up a weather-person could get himself busted down to doing weather forecast on Sunday mornings for making such a statement! Back then, the rule was to always regard snow in the negative connotation.

Many an erstwhile youngster has sacrificed his or her sleep in order to stay up for the 11:00 forecast - only to hear Guy Sharpe gleefully yammer on about how lucky our area was to have MISSED all the snow that was somehow dumped on some other little undeserving community in Tennessee or something.

And so ... as the democrat congresspeople would say... "for the sake of the children!!!" ... I am invoking the five-day rule.

The photograph up top was taken this evening, at least five days from the first snow last week.

I better go pick up some milk and bread!