On Wednesday, 2/9/11, we had school's closing at noon. Our neighboring county made the decision prior to school opening so those people knew going in and could plan accordingly. We can't do things like that here, due to the furor that would erupt at the mention of the 8th snow day, and the plans it would interrupt when there wasn't a hint of a flake on the horizon... radar map notwithstanding. Those giant blue blobs heading our way are such old hat anymore, nobody rushes to the store for bread and peanut butter until the blob is less than an hour away and little icy thingys are pinging off your windshield.
However, everybody knows, we do what the other county does. I dropped the ball on this one, I admit. I did not know the other county declared a half day, or I might have left Gib and Mariah at home if they could handle it academically. So at preschool drop off, we TOLD all the parents, if school closes, so do we and to keep their cell phones on and be prepared for a noon closing. Seriously, not 5 minutes after preschool started, we got the call from our school system that schools would close at 11:30. That made the director and I have to call 30 parents who had just left the building. Meanwhile, I was texting and calling Mike and Grammy to get them to pick up Gib and Mariah. I do not TRUST the buses with my children after Indy's experience one year when the snow arrived fast (just like this one did) and it took hours for her to get home. And actually, the bus driver gave up and dumped all the kids at another school but we parents had no way of knowing it since all cell phones ceased working, all landlines were overloaded, and these were middle school kids, most of whom at that time did not have cell phones even if they could get a call out. What a nightmare. Never again - that's my motto. When preschool parents complain, I tell that story. Think about buses sliding off the road with your child in it - almost happened recently, your child on a bus somewhere, but you can't find them, FOR HOURS in a snow storm, your husband is on the freeway FOR HOURS - try 6 or 8, and you're stuck at home trying to find help. And that is why schools close.
But, when everyone was loading their preschool children in their cars, to add insult to injury, still not a flake in the sky... but there were sunbeams, birds were singing, it was quite nice if you don't count it was cold enough to die in 20 minutes flat out there. And there was that blue blob on the radar map was making its way towards us.
Well, this one meant business - it just took 4 hours to get here. But when it hit, within minutes we had snow covered roads and it iced up immediately. People who were on the roads at 3:30, travelling what is usually a 15-20 minute commute, (note this is the usual school departure time), did not get home until 6, 8, or even 10:30 p.m. depending on where they were travelling - i.e., how icy and bumper to bumper was it, did people abandon their cars, etc. Because the snow hit so hard and so fast, it all iced up, right at rush hour, and everyone hit the roads at once, it was a nightmare. Mike had a coworker, in fact, who could not get any further in his car, due to ice and hills, had to park it, and walk 5 miles home (uphill, haha). In the snow, about 30 degrees. Carrying his laptop in a backpack. A sheet of ice is way different than a foot of snow.
This was what it looked like the next morning. (Oh, and we got railings before it snowed! Aren't they pretty?! Me, Mom & Skeeter went to the welder's place and he custom designed them based on what we liked). I tried to get a photo showing the pretty sparkly snow that we got the night before. It hadn't snowed any more than the couple inches we got from the initial burst, but it was so pretty, and fluffy at our house. I liked how sparkly it was the next morning.
Another day later, it is still that way. Today is Friday 2/11/11, and school no school again! This surprised me. It's our 9th snow day. There are 10 snow days planned for in the school calendar. There is some debate about what happens after that. Possibly some kind of grace period if another Act of God occurs. But if it's just a measly 1 or 2 rain/flood day, I don't know....
Here's Chino looking out the front door:
"Ummm, let's see. 12 degrees outside. I don't think so."
Diego: "Again?!!!!! Why?!"
"My paw is cold, and I didn't even leave the porch"
On another note: Things sure have been quiet around here, oh say around 5:30 a.m., it's is BLISSFULLY quiet, if you know what I mean. I saw Mrs. Cardinal the morning after our new toy arrived. She was sitting on somebody's favorite branch, calling for him. yeah, yeah, yeah... that's when I told her he was a no good peeping tom, he didn't spend time with her and the winglets like he should've and what kind of psycho example was he anyway? he couldn't have possibly been providing since he spent ALL friggin day long attacking my windows and I knew she could do alot better. I haven't seen her since our little pep talk.
Sharp shooting skills are apparently a dominant gene. Indy and Mariah both picked up the pellet gun and got bullseyes. Taryn needs to come home and give it a go! Gib, of course, is a great marksman... Scouting and all that! They say the pellet gun is fun, and maybe someday, when it's not 8 degrees outside, I'll try it. I'm thinking when it's hot and there are lots of leaves so the golfer I accidently make miss par can't figure out where the wild shot came from.
