THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32)

There are some job situations in which “YOU CAN’T WIN!” One of the classics is being a Superintendent of Schools and having to make the “call” on a questionable weather day. If you make the correct call, you are treated like Steve Gostowski kicking a field goal to win a tied game. If you make an incorrect call, you are treated, well, like a total fool.

The weather forecast for eastern and central Massachusetts on Tuesday was calling for pretty bad weather for Wednesday morning. Initially, it was calling for quite a bit of snow, followed by sleet, followed by freezing rain, and then followed by lots of “regular” rain. When I woke up around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, we’d had about a half inch of snow and it was sleeting like crazy. Had I been the Superintendent of Schools for Framingham, I’d have “called” a two hour delay.
In fact, many school systems in this area had one hour and two hour delays (including Ashland and Natick) and many school systems closed school entirely (including Wellesley, Marlboro, and Southboro). My wife works for Marian (Catholic) High School in Framingham. I was really happy that she got a phone call saying there would be NO SCHOOL for Marian High for Wednesday. (I really didn’t want to have to get out scraping down the driveway at 5:30. My wife is the school’s Administrative Assistant and she leaves for work at ten minutes before 6!) I was also astounded that Framingham HAD SCHOOL ON WEDNESDAY ON THE REGULAR SCHEDULE!

Even though the Marian decision was convenient for me and made Mary Ann ecstatically happy, I can now as a Thursday morning Quarterback proclaim that both Marian and Framingham made the wrong decisions. The correct decision was that both SHOULD have proclaimed two hour delays for Wednesday. Driving was HORRIBLE before 9:30 a.m., but after that on most main roads, it really wasn’t bad at all. Everybody needed at least an extra hour to clean off their driveways, clean off their cars (if kept outside), and allow extra time for the drive to school.

I sort of felt like a baby, but I called off church for Wednesday night. For you non-evangelicals out there, Wednesday night is BIG in most evangelical churches. Most “Bible believing churches” have either a service or a prayer meeting or SOME sort of activities on Wednesday night. (We have a prayer meeting.) I noticed as I watched the channel 5 news in the early evening that a LOT of Assemblies of God, Baptist, and Nazarene churches had called off church for Wednesday night, so I no longer felt like such a baby!

That gets me to when I feel almost exactly like a Superintendent of Schools- when a major snowstorm is forecast for Saturday night and Sunday morning. Well, guess what? At this time, a major snowstorm is forecast for Saturday night and Sunday morning! If you HAVE church, 70% of the people don’t show up and people are angry that you had church. If you DON’T have church, there are always a few people (well 30% !!) who think you’re a wimp and are disappointed. So, this Sunday we’ll see how the Thursday morning quarterback does!!