Snow Day! It really doesn’t mean what it used to.

Sleeping in, eating your favorite cereal while watching the Price Is Right in your pajamas, all before breaking out the snowsuits, sleds, and shovels. An afternoon plummeting down hills and pummeling your friends with snowballs was topped off by grilled cheese sandwiches, warm soups, and of course hot chocolate. Evenings consisted of video games, crossing your fingers that your snowman would survive the night and school would be canceled again the next day.

Oh, to be a kid again. As adults snow days trigger anxiety and stress instead of excitement and anticipation. As the forecast looms, questions of road conditions, where is the shovel, how much gas is in the car, who’s watching the kids, do we have enough food and dozens of other cold sweat-inducing situations flood our brains.

Even if the roads are semi-cleared, the effort to dislodge your car from its icy tomb mirrors an archeological dig in ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, instead of being rewarded with untold riches, you get to make a white-knuckled drive into work. And don’t lie, you didn’t completely clear the windshield so, you’re making the treacherous driving begging your defroster to work faster while hoping your car gets warm before you get to your parking spot at work. By parking spot, I mean the small slivers of pavement between the glaciers created by snowplows that only 4×4 Jeep or mountain goat can access.

Tiptoe and baby step from your car to the sidewalk covered with ice and just a hint of salt while bundled up like Randy from Christmas Story (I can’t put my arms down!). You made it. Now you get an uneasy and distracted eight hours to panic about how you’re going to get home. And you still won’t clean your whole windshield for the commute.

If there is one silver lining to the nightmare we have all faced the past two years, it is the concept of remote work and e-learning. For adults, it is probably one of the best things to happen to them in their careers. No traffic on the commute from the bedroom to the home office, kitchen table, or sofa, except for maybe a dog or cat vying for some attention. Lunches made in your own kitchen, and admit it, pajamas all day, at least from the waist down.

With the practice of electronic or remote learning perfected as a necessity in the past two school years, kiddos and teachers no longer have good old snow days, but instead can do their schoolwork at home and not fall behind or add extra days to the end of the school year. The kids and a few parents may not like it, but it really is the best for everyone.

Why haven’t we been doing this for years? One word…connectivity.

Wisper Internet’s founder and CEO Nathan Stooke explains the pandemic has brought 2030 to 2020. What that means is technology, commerce, and learning that was slowly dipping their toe into cyberspace was instead thrown into the deep end of the online pool. Sink or swim.

Most schools, businesses, and small-town households are learning to float and swim pretty well but there are still others who are barely keeping their heads above water and when an unexpected wave comes, they are pulled under. Why? Connectivity.

Since its homegrown roots two decades ago, Wisper’s goal was to connect people in small towns, and both rural and urban communities with wireless broadband internet. In the early 2000s internet was a novelty or even a luxury. Today, it’s a necessity. It is needed in homes just like water or electricity. Try doing without one of those on a snow day.

Wisper cares about small towns because that’s where we live too. We want to connect communities so parents can work safely from home on a snowy day. Kids can do their school lessons before hitting the hills. Ready or not, working and learning from home is the future. Check to see what Wisper can do to help you and your family!