When my children were little, and excited at the prospect of a snow day, I taught them that the sound of the phone was the sound of people cancelling their real estate appointments, thereby dampening slightly the joy of the day. Now that they are grown and gone, a snow day is entirely different. Today was a non-stop round of phone calls, lasting at least ten hours, preceded and followed by emails and paperwork. Since we're still not plowed out, it's been 24 hours since I've put more than a foot out the door; and yet, work went on all day. It began in the wee hours of the morning, when I left my warm bed to check the radar maps, to see whether I needed to cancel everything in our offices. I did. But most of us were busier than usual, handling crises and referrals, tied by Blackberrys and cell phones to our home offices.
It made me nostalgic for the "olden days" of my early years in real estate, where, once you had checked the daily mail, you knew that nothing much would happen until the next day's delivery. That was followed by the Fed Ex age, after which ensued the fax stage. Voice mail came next, and then everything changed with the arrival of email. Even though I realize that many of our clients are in different time zones and countries, where snow may never fall, it still seems surprising that I didn't even have time to read the morning paper (which I didn't even go down the driveway to look for, since I don't have boots that high!).
I know it's good that activity is picking up, and I was certainly grateful for the peace and quiet that allowed me to take my time doing things that had been put off earlier in the week for meetings. Now, however, I'm ready for an old-fashioned snow day!
