January 21, 2016

 Well, today should have been a snow day. We've had several snow days over the past few years and none of them came close to today. A text message was sent out at 5:16AM saying that we would have school. We not only got several inches of snow, the base of it was icy stuff so it was slick. If the streets had been plowed it was late last night so the roads were already covered up again. We only got out of our steep cul-de-sac because my mom has an all-wheel-drive vehicle. Unfortunately. We also picked up one of the paras who lives nearby, who was unable to get out of her cul-de-sac. She ended up having to walk up the hill to the end of the street so we could get her. On the way we passed kids standing out in the freezing cold, and the still falling snow, waiting for the school bus. The buses at our school were late and some of the kids said they had waited for an hour to get picked up. One of the office ladies who lives out in the country had to drive on the rumble strip on the side of the road most of the way into town just so she knew she was still on the road. Big miscall on the snow day.

Before lunch the superintendent sent out explaining his reasoning for not having a snow day. I like the guy but the email was basically bullshit. He said that the call had to be made by 5:45AM and at that time the roads were drivable and the updated forecast hadn't come out yet (which showed the snow was going to keep coming). That was pretty much a lie because at that point the roads already sucked. Maybe the streets he checked had been plowed already. None of the side streets, or the roads outside town where most of the teachers live, had been plowed. Also, I think every other school district around us had a snow day. We could have followed what some of them did by calling a two-hour delay to buy some time (to get around the 5:45AM deadline), and then call a snow day. Mistakes were made and instead of accepting that and apologizing, the email tried to validate the decision to an audience already annoyed because none of us were expecting to be at work.

To add to that news, I didn't sleep very well last night. I didn't sleep much and when I did I had super weird dreams that were not very restful. So I was really hoping for the snow day just so I could have a chance to get some actual sleep. But no.

And on top of that, I had four tests today, so I spent the whole day standing in the back of the lab watching kids test. It made the day go fast but it also seemed to drag on forever. During the fifth grade test this morning I helped the teacher get the pull string back in her hoodie. She asked me if I had any ideas and I asked if she had a coat hanger or stiff piece of wire. She did not. I thought about it for a minute and dug out an ethernet cord because it was the only thing I could think of that was stiff enough to be pushed through the hood. The main problem is that the hoodie didn't have grommets over the holes, just cuts in the fabric, and the pull string didn't have knots at the ends. The lack of grommets worked out in our favor because the cuts in the fabric were big enough to get the ethernet cord through. After she got it out the other side I gave her a piece of yarn so she could tie the pull string to the ethernet cord and pull the whole thing back through. And it worked. She may be the only person in the history of the world to fix a hoodie with an ethernet cord.

Other things probably happened but I'm tired and nothing is coming to mind. On the way home, it appeared that the main streets and some of the side streets had been plowed. Our cul-de-sac had not been, they just dropped a bunch of sand. I might be carpooling again tomorrow because if it freezes again overnight my car probably won't be making it to the top.

Tonight I was going to write my introductions for class but I nearly fell asleep before dinner and since dinner I just been kind of out of it. My main goal was not to go to bed at 7:00PM. It is now 9:00PM so I have accomplished that goal but I think I'll be going to bed after I finish this. I can write my introductions tomorrow.

It would be nice if we had a consolation snow day tomorrow. I think it is supposed to snow. Or maybe it's not, but after today no one would complain about a long weekend. Regardless, I'm going to go to bed now.