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________________________ *Snow Days* 1/18/02 ________________________ If you enjoy this free daily email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of many! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, join the thousands of HeartTouchers.com readers around the world by sending an e-mail with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@aol.com Visit our inspirational web site and read all the past stories in our archives at: http://www.HeartTouchers.com ____________________________________________ We had our first significant snowfall of the winter yesterday here in Wisconsin. Normally, plenty of the white stuff would have fallen by now... I just absolutely hate shoveling snow and am counting the days until Caleb and Connor are old enough to make shoveling a part of their winter duties! Caleb is six now and I figured that he should have his own shovel, but Kristi tells me that six-year-olds shouldn't be shoveling snow yet... Something about stunting their growth... It seems to me that I had to shovel snow when I was four! Oddly enough I was looking forward to this snowfall like no other. For the first time in my life I had a snowblower!! Kristi's mom moved to Florida this year and graciously gave us their snowblower to use... So there it sat in the back of our garage in anticipation of the big day... but I took one look at all the junk we had piled in the front of the garage, wasn't even sure if we had gas for it, and realized that I didn't even know how to start a snowblower! So I removed the snow the old fashioned way... I'm looking forward to the next snowfall! Enjoy today's story by HeartTouchers.com favorite and regular contributor Al Batt, as he shares his memories of "Snow Days." Have a wonderful weekend... From my family to yours, Michael _________________________________________ SNOW DAYS By Al Batt Has anything in life ever been quite so thrilling as the times spent as a child listening to the kitchen radio report school closings due to an approaching blizzard? I would listen intently to the announcer -- oh, if only I'd listened to my teachers half as well. I'd listen like a man, who had bet his life savings on a horse, listened to the track announcer. I'd listen to the announcer giving cancellations school by school, each one inching closer and closer to my school district. Sometimes, just for orneriness, he would give them in alphabetical order. This would just add to the torture. It was a fiendish thing to do to someone whose school was not near the beginning of the alphabet. My school began with the letter N. I thought it stood for knowledge. Why couldn't I go to school in Albert Lea or Alden or Austin or Adams so I'd be at the beginning of the list? I and everyone like me understood the agony of anticipation. Why didn't the guy on the radio hurry? Why did he have to spend so much time giving the breakfast special at some restaurant I had never been to and probably would never go to? Why didn't the school officials just give us break and call off school for the day? What could one day have hurt? Most of us knew more than what was good for us already. Were the powers that be worried that if school were called off that we kids would have too much fun? At least if they called off school, we wouldn't be able to throw any snowballs at them. I would have been so happy to miss a day because of snow. A snow day is like a found day. One minute you don't have it, then you do. A free day. A snow day. Magical words. I would spend my snow days hoping and praying for more snow. The only thing better than a day off of school because of snow was two days off because of snow. The blizzard would hit the towns some distance from us first. We were never on the leading edge of winter storms. We were never on the leading age of anything. The storm would inch its way in our direction; the closings given on the radio moving closer and closer to my school with all of the speed of a glacier. The ticking of the kitchen clock would become almost deafening. It was often a photo finish as the clock and the announcer's list of school closings raced to the wire. If he didn't say "New Richland-Hartland Public School" soon, the all too punctual bus driver, Ralphie, would bring his orange conveyance to the end of our driveway. Then it was too late. On such days, we students, the condemned, would squirm in our bus seats watching the insufficient snowfall with all the gravity of pallbearers. Ralphie wasn't much happier. He didn't want to be in the bus either, especially with a bunch of morose children. Even though we all suspected that Ralphie had become a bus driver only because he hated children, we had no doubt that even he enjoyed seeing the occasional smile. But there were days. Those glorious days when the announcer's voice would say those few words that I longed to hear, "New Richland-Hartland Public School is closed today." Oh, be still my heart -- the words still get to me. On such days, I'd quickly slurp the last of my cereal-that sugary mess of milk on the bottom of my bowl. What a wonderful day it was. The world was my oyster -- whatever that means. It was. How could a person ever be any happier than he was on a snow day? We didn't have to be athletes to experience the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. We knew the thrill and agony of school closings. Al Batt SnoEowl@aol.com Write Al and let him know your thoughts on his story! _______________________________ Al Batt lives on a farm near Hartland, Minnesota. Besides being a husband to Gail, father and grandfather; Al is a newspaper columnist, a radio and TV personality, a storyteller, a tour leader and an avid birder. Al Batt RR1 Box 56A Hartland, MN 56042 _________________________________________ Happy New Year from HeartTouchers.com From now on we will be offering our book, Straight From the Heart "A Celebration of Life" for only $13 (instead of the regular price of $14.95), and best of all, we will pay the shipping! So if you have any interest in purchasing an autographed copy of the book for yourself, or as a gift for your loved ones, now is the time to get it! To order your autographed copy send a check or money order for $13 (We pay the shipping!) for each book made out to Michael T. Powers, and then send it to: Michael T. Powers 1918 Liberty Lane Janesville, WI 53545 To preview the book by reading some of the stories visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/michael_t__powers/ AOL Users Click below: Straight From the Heart: A Celebration of Life _________________________________________ Reader Feedback! I really enjoyed your story, believe me it touched my heart, "YES" you found a treasure. Bettye Winegar poppyswife1@aol.com Thank you for helping me remember that I also have a treasure down my street. I cannot wait until I can talk to her again. We get so caught up in our own world and shut everyone out. I want to practice being a better person and look for my treasures. Also, I have a few prayer request. 1. my 24 yr-old son Jason has a balding spot over his right ear that started out the size of a finger nail, now it looks to be over two inches long and over an inch wide. 2. my 22 yr-old daughter Kim is a single mother how is desperately looking for work. And is spiritually down. 3. my 27 yr-old son Bruce needs his car repaired. Please help me pray and be in agreement that these things will be met. God Bless you, Mary Whitby mwhitby@utmb.edu _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself." Dwight L. Moody Verse for the Day: "Righteousness guards the man of integrity." -- Proverbs 13:6 Kid's Thought For The Day: "Silence can be an answer." Parent's Thought For The Day: "A mother is a person who sees there are only four pieces of pie for five people and promptly remarks that she has never cared for pie." Coach's Thought For The Day: "Don't mistake activity for achievement." -- John Wooden Writer's Thought For The Day: "The first step is to find out what you love -- and don't be practical about it. The second step is to start doing what you love immediately, in any small way possible. I've seen what happens to people when they get to do what they love. They light up. They glow. They have a kind of energy that's wonderful." --Barbara Sher Deep Thought For The Day: "My wife Kristi thinks I'm too nosy. At least that's what she keeps scribbling in her diary." ___________________________________________ _ /_/\/\ MICHAEL T. POWERS \_\ / HeartTouchers@aol.com /_/ \ "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no \_\/\ \ longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I \_\/ live in the body I live for the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 ___________________________________________ The copyrights to the stories that appear in HeartTouchers.com are owned by the authors and are used with their permission. We refuse to run stories without the author's permission and contact info listed after the story. We also refuse to publish stories listed as "author unknown." (All of which violates Copyright Law and the rights of the authors.) This e-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but please do not cut and paste the stories to be used elsewhere unless you have contacted and been given permission by the individual writer. Thank you so much for honoring the rights of those writers who graciously share their stories with us! __________________________________________ Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business "I thought of you first after my family sat down to watch the video we gave them. They loved it, to say the least! Within thirty seconds my mom was crying and my dad did too. They said it was the best Christmas gift we could have given them!! You did such a beautiful job! They were so surprised and so touched--they really, really, really loved it. Thanks for helping to make it so special to us all. My mom mentioned how the songs were perfect for the video too! Thanks again!" Kelli-- College Station, TX Let me make you a video from your pictures or home movies! Check out the web page for Michael's video production business! Visit: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery/ AOL Users click here: Video Imagery ___________________________________________ Would you like to see your story in HeartTouchers.com? Writer's guidelines can be found on our Web site here: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/guidelines/ AOL Users click here: Writer's Guidelines ___________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE: "I need a daily source of inspiration and encouragement in my life!" To become a HeartTouchers.com Member send an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@AOL.COM Then get ready to laugh, cry, and be deeply touched by some of the best stories on the Internet! __________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: All you have to do is send an e-mail with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@aol.com Give it a day or two to be processed... __________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm AOL Users click here: The Four Spiritual Laws __________________________________________ |
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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