A Snow Day--Not
I can't believe we had school all day today. Wait. Maybe what I can't believe is that we didn't have school last Tuesday. Today almost everything was the same except that a lot more snow was predicted, and there was just a bit less wind. Oh, and I guess we didn't have that thin glaze of ice first this time--that made all surfaces more slick than they were this time. Also, our local public schools were still on this morning. I suspect they're out of the extra days built into the calender for snow days. The temperature is six degrees and wind gusts are over 20 MPH. Not quite blizzard conditions--and apparently perfectly fine for normal daily activities.
We're out of extra days in our school calender too, mostly because we share facilities with churches, and sometimes need to take time off when there's a funeral. Having another day off would mean loss of a vacation day for students at the end of the quarter when we had a teacher's work day scheduled. Any days beyond this would mean fewer days off during spring break or having school on a Saturday. I wonder how parents would weigh these various options if they were asked for input. I also wonder what they would decide to do for their own families if they knew that they always had the option of staying at home with their family, even if school was on, if they felt that it was not safe to be out.
When I arrived at school this morning, I cased the scene to try to figure out how to get to one of the entrances. Students arriving for music faced a similar dilemma--only worse because there was more snow by then. Every route required wading snow, and I wasn't wearing boots--don't own any. (When I have to go out here at home I wear Hiromi's "shtiffle." This was Hiromi's solution last winter when I started looking for boots to buy. "You can wear mine any time you want.")
"I think someone needs to go out there and shovel snow," I told Wes before music class was over. I learned then that he had looked for a snow shovel and couldn't find one. Later someone produced one from the shop, and Marvin plowed paths from the front door to the kitchen door. He also plowed a path to Norma's car so she could go to the grade school to teach her literature class. The paths promptly blew shut again, and the snow continued unabated. Wes cleared paths again at the end of the school day.
It's still snowing. The NOAA site suggests we may have had around seven inches at 4:00. That would make the 9:00 forecast of an inch per hour exactly on target. We might get as much as twelve inches. It's a little hard to tell which areas are being described for some of the varying forecast amounts.
At school during break today Brandon didn't want to get his shoes and socks wet on his way to the shop to play basketball so he took them off and went barefoot. I'm sure his mother did not tell him to do this. This mother wouldn't have let him if she had seen him prepare to do it.
The local public schools dismissed early, but we are more stable stock (I could think of other ways to say this--not synonyms, exactly.) and not carried along by the drift (!) around us. I think they've probably had five snow days by now. We've had one.
There was a lot less snow on the roads than around buildings and other more protected areas. The wind patterns somehow favored these conditions more than usual. On the roads, however, things could get scary pretty quickly, even if the surface seemed mostly clear. One parent told me that he met a semi on the overpass by the cemetery. Drifts had reached considerable size in the westbound land, and he met a semi while trying to avoid both the drifts and the semi--and then couldn't see anything at all part of that time when the "snow-wash" of the semi engulfed his vehicle.
At the 50/61 crossing, I stopped behind one of our students who was waiting to cross. She came back to my car and asked, "How do I do I know when it's safe to cross? I couldn't see those two semis that just now went by in front of me." She and I both had our window down to get a better view.
"I looked west and said, "If it's clear far enough that you know you have time to cross this land, just go quickly."
"It's clearer now," she said, and went back to her car. We both crossed safely. I think those two semis had kicked up such a huge cloud of light snow that they and everything around them were invisible.
Only one stretch on Partridge road seemed dangerous to me--down by Rexroads where the windbreak from the east left all the snow lying where it fell. The boundary between the ditch and the road disappeared, and I wasn't sure where I was driving. This worked out fine both times when I crossed this section since there was no oncoming traffic at the time and I simply drove as close to the middle as I could. I still have bad memories of navigating this spot when I was in college and met someone there who accused me afterward of trying to run him off the road. I remember looking at his big farm pickup approaching and feeling very vulnerable in my low-slung Opel (which threatened to bottom out even in the middle of the road), and deciding that I would be in trouble a lot quicker than he would if one of us got too close to the ditch dropoff. I didn't try to run him off the road though, but I apparently miscalculated where the edge of the road was and crowded him uncomfortably close to it. Embarrassing.
At school, during the afternoon break, Mr. Schrock took the lemons he was handed and made lemonade. I mean he scooped snow from the drift right outside the learning center door and made snow cream. He and several of the girls went to Shetlers for supplies, and he and Nathan and Kendra measured and mixed and offered the results to whoever wanted it. It was delicious and the texture was perfect--frosty, but soft and sweet--not soupy--melt in your mouth goodness.
When I got home (after we dismissed 15 minutes early), I sat at the end of the drive for a while, pondering whether I should make a run through the two big drifts across the drive. They both looked pretty daunting, but I remembered that Wes commented that the snow was light and easy to drive through, so I did. Besides, what if Hiromi didn't anticipate my vehicle stopped in the drive and rammed into it with his car when he came home after dark--and tried to juice it into the drive too. The next problem was wading the drifts between the vehicle and the house.
I carried warm water to the sheep and fed them after I donned a warmer coat and the shtiffle. Hiromi has to work till 7:00, and these chores fall to me at such times. I also inspected Brandi's makeshift doghouse and found snow coating the old jeans I had put on the floor inside. So I swapped them for dry ones and hoped she would stay comfortable. She insists on sleeping right outside the front door on the porch, so before the last storm I wrapped a plastic canvas around a large box which I turned on its side and have diligently turned wherever necessary to keep the open side pointed away from the wind. She has not been entirely respectful of my efforts and has shredded a few of the less sturdy plastic coverings I used to cover one box flap to create a swinging door at the top of the opening--and another covering at the back. But she seems to like her little house, and sleeps inside.
Brandi plows snow wherever she goes, with her short little Corgi legs not quite touching terra firma otherwise. But she seems quite undaunted by the challenge, and charges here and there with gusto.
Yesterday I heard some Chanticleer fans talk about their plans to attend a concert in Newton tonight. If they go, they will do so against the advice of the weather service which warns that "travel will be hazardous or impossible." No offense to Chanticleer, but as far as I'm concerned, their appeal doesn't hold a candle to the appeal of an evening at home.
We're out of extra days in our school calender too, mostly because we share facilities with churches, and sometimes need to take time off when there's a funeral. Having another day off would mean loss of a vacation day for students at the end of the quarter when we had a teacher's work day scheduled. Any days beyond this would mean fewer days off during spring break or having school on a Saturday. I wonder how parents would weigh these various options if they were asked for input. I also wonder what they would decide to do for their own families if they knew that they always had the option of staying at home with their family, even if school was on, if they felt that it was not safe to be out.
When I arrived at school this morning, I cased the scene to try to figure out how to get to one of the entrances. Students arriving for music faced a similar dilemma--only worse because there was more snow by then. Every route required wading snow, and I wasn't wearing boots--don't own any. (When I have to go out here at home I wear Hiromi's "shtiffle." This was Hiromi's solution last winter when I started looking for boots to buy. "You can wear mine any time you want.")
"I think someone needs to go out there and shovel snow," I told Wes before music class was over. I learned then that he had looked for a snow shovel and couldn't find one. Later someone produced one from the shop, and Marvin plowed paths from the front door to the kitchen door. He also plowed a path to Norma's car so she could go to the grade school to teach her literature class. The paths promptly blew shut again, and the snow continued unabated. Wes cleared paths again at the end of the school day.
It's still snowing. The NOAA site suggests we may have had around seven inches at 4:00. That would make the 9:00 forecast of an inch per hour exactly on target. We might get as much as twelve inches. It's a little hard to tell which areas are being described for some of the varying forecast amounts.
At school during break today Brandon didn't want to get his shoes and socks wet on his way to the shop to play basketball so he took them off and went barefoot. I'm sure his mother did not tell him to do this. This mother wouldn't have let him if she had seen him prepare to do it.
The local public schools dismissed early, but we are more stable stock (I could think of other ways to say this--not synonyms, exactly.) and not carried along by the drift (!) around us. I think they've probably had five snow days by now. We've had one.
There was a lot less snow on the roads than around buildings and other more protected areas. The wind patterns somehow favored these conditions more than usual. On the roads, however, things could get scary pretty quickly, even if the surface seemed mostly clear. One parent told me that he met a semi on the overpass by the cemetery. Drifts had reached considerable size in the westbound land, and he met a semi while trying to avoid both the drifts and the semi--and then couldn't see anything at all part of that time when the "snow-wash" of the semi engulfed his vehicle.
At the 50/61 crossing, I stopped behind one of our students who was waiting to cross. She came back to my car and asked, "How do I do I know when it's safe to cross? I couldn't see those two semis that just now went by in front of me." She and I both had our window down to get a better view.
"I looked west and said, "If it's clear far enough that you know you have time to cross this land, just go quickly."
"It's clearer now," she said, and went back to her car. We both crossed safely. I think those two semis had kicked up such a huge cloud of light snow that they and everything around them were invisible.
Only one stretch on Partridge road seemed dangerous to me--down by Rexroads where the windbreak from the east left all the snow lying where it fell. The boundary between the ditch and the road disappeared, and I wasn't sure where I was driving. This worked out fine both times when I crossed this section since there was no oncoming traffic at the time and I simply drove as close to the middle as I could. I still have bad memories of navigating this spot when I was in college and met someone there who accused me afterward of trying to run him off the road. I remember looking at his big farm pickup approaching and feeling very vulnerable in my low-slung Opel (which threatened to bottom out even in the middle of the road), and deciding that I would be in trouble a lot quicker than he would if one of us got too close to the ditch dropoff. I didn't try to run him off the road though, but I apparently miscalculated where the edge of the road was and crowded him uncomfortably close to it. Embarrassing.
At school, during the afternoon break, Mr. Schrock took the lemons he was handed and made lemonade. I mean he scooped snow from the drift right outside the learning center door and made snow cream. He and several of the girls went to Shetlers for supplies, and he and Nathan and Kendra measured and mixed and offered the results to whoever wanted it. It was delicious and the texture was perfect--frosty, but soft and sweet--not soupy--melt in your mouth goodness.
When I got home (after we dismissed 15 minutes early), I sat at the end of the drive for a while, pondering whether I should make a run through the two big drifts across the drive. They both looked pretty daunting, but I remembered that Wes commented that the snow was light and easy to drive through, so I did. Besides, what if Hiromi didn't anticipate my vehicle stopped in the drive and rammed into it with his car when he came home after dark--and tried to juice it into the drive too. The next problem was wading the drifts between the vehicle and the house.
I carried warm water to the sheep and fed them after I donned a warmer coat and the shtiffle. Hiromi has to work till 7:00, and these chores fall to me at such times. I also inspected Brandi's makeshift doghouse and found snow coating the old jeans I had put on the floor inside. So I swapped them for dry ones and hoped she would stay comfortable. She insists on sleeping right outside the front door on the porch, so before the last storm I wrapped a plastic canvas around a large box which I turned on its side and have diligently turned wherever necessary to keep the open side pointed away from the wind. She has not been entirely respectful of my efforts and has shredded a few of the less sturdy plastic coverings I used to cover one box flap to create a swinging door at the top of the opening--and another covering at the back. But she seems to like her little house, and sleeps inside.
Brandi plows snow wherever she goes, with her short little Corgi legs not quite touching terra firma otherwise. But she seems quite undaunted by the challenge, and charges here and there with gusto.
Yesterday I heard some Chanticleer fans talk about their plans to attend a concert in Newton tonight. If they go, they will do so against the advice of the weather service which warns that "travel will be hazardous or impossible." No offense to Chanticleer, but as far as I'm concerned, their appeal doesn't hold a candle to the appeal of an evening at home.
posted by Mrs. I at
2:41 PM
1 Comments:
Well, we had about an inch of snow this morning. The schools were cancelled . I guess we are made of such hearty stock in NC. (Not to mention the hills are a little steeper here.) I admit, having school in your conditions seemed a bit over the top. Sorry!
By
Dorcas Byler, at 2/10/2011
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