I mentioned yesterday that our superintendent didn’t call off school. I was annoyed because I had a feeling that it would get bad. I was more annoyed when I found out that Cameron and Lauren had the day off due to the threat of severe weather. What? You gave people the day off for the potential of thunderstorms? Rain? Seriously?
Around 10:30 yesterday Evelyn and I walked over to get the mail at the post office. We came back and I told her to get her messes picked up because she needed to eat lunch so I could take her to the bus. She was so excited because I gave her my bus umbrella so she didn’t get all wet in the snow! I had told her she could fold it up and take it with her to school. (Because preschool teachers love stuff like 5 year olds with umbrellas!). She was animatedly chatting and cleaning up the office when I realized I had missed 2 calls from the bus boss and one call from his assistant. I was already mad when I called them back because I knew. I knew they would call school off when the rain switched to snow, and was accumulating quickly, and conditions were turning to crap. And sure enough, they wanted me at Carbondale at 11:30 to get the kids because they were dismissing early. I told the boss I wasn’t happy about it. He said believe me I agree with you. Apparently at 5 am he had told the superintendent that the back roads were already bad in places that didn’t get cleared from Friday’s storm, and with the predicted forecast he thought it wasn’t worth it. Instead of listening to him, she called the school board President. He said go to school. I don’t understand why you have a director of transportation and pay him, if you aren’t going to listen to him. He had been out. He knew the road conditions were already bad. He didn’t just stay on the highway to check these conditions. I drove 98 miles yesterday, most of which were on terrible roads, with little kids, in a bus that although new, is not well equipped to handle bad road conditions. Nobody asked me though.
The road conditions at 11:30 can only be described as a hellscape of my worst nightmare. I made it. I was not happy, and briefly considered making a couple of phone calls, but bit my tongue. Bus driving is a frustrating job sometimes. I am expected to go when they tell me. Nobody with common sense would go out in some of the conditions they expect me to drive around in, and if I wreck or end up in a ditch, I will be suspended, forced to take a drug test, and not allowed to go back to work until I pass the drug screening. Not to mention the absolute horror if I were to hurt someone’s child. But I wasn’t given a choice on if I would or should be out there. Anyway I was grouchy, I admit I was frustrated, and although I made it ok, and won’t quit because it works too well with my work schedule, I feel like my grouchy attitude was warranted. I was also thankful that I had the foresight to leave my own kids at home. I told Jim I had a feeling they should just skip it. He agreed with me (Jim is the soft one around here - the one they go to when they want a day off anyway).
We had Marg fixed this weekend - she is supposed to be resting, which seems to be going ok if Jewwy the jerk would leave her alone.
Since I was home for the day at 1:30, Quincy informed me that I should make chili and cinnamon rolls. I indulged her, mostly because I was working my aggression out on bread dough.
Cameron and Lauren informed me that they were ok. No storms had hit them as of bedtime last night!
The forecast for overnight was blizzard conditions, with additional snow, and 40-50 mph winds. The superintendent redeemed herself a little by calling off school before 6 last night! The governor closed all the state offices. Since the Warershed district is a branch of state government, I gave us the day off as well. My maintenance man can’t get out to our sites in this weather anyway. My annual meeting was supposed to be today, but my board President told me if I would call all the board members, he would postpone it. I agreed. I can make calls from home, and I did, however calling my board is harder than it sounds. My board is made up of 19 members. Since several have passed away, we are down to 15. Of the 15, about 10 are over 80. Now I don’t want a bunch of 80 year olds, who are mostly retired farmers thinking they needed to come out in bad weather, so I knew it was important. The problem - 80 year olds don’t all hear well. I was yelling all afternoon. My kids were like mom why are you yelling? Also, they don’t know how to use the voice mail features on their phones, so leaving a meaaage won’t work. Also, they don’t text and most don’t have email. Added to that, many of their wives like to answer their phones and then they have to ask a billion questions about the kids and whatever else. I literally made 15 phone calls and it took me all afternoon. Worth it for the day off I earned as a result though!
Unfortunately, Jim didn’t get the day off. Luckily for him, I forced him to buy me a vehicle with 4 wheel drive! I cleared the car off for him while he was in the shower. The process was complicated by the wind. Every time I’d get the car cleared off, the wind would blow more snow off the roof. Hummmmm….mayyybeeee my organizing goals should include clearing the garage out so we could park in there? Jim said he had a moderate amount of trouble with the hill at the end of the driveway, but he just went the downhill route, and had no other issues. I packed his lunch so he doesn’t have to drive home at noon. I hope he has a good day, and that it is quiet and not too crazy with people needing stuff from him.
I haven’t ventured out to do chores yet, I though I would let the kids sleep for a little bit first. I did take some pictures from the door though. We got about 7-8 inches of snow overnight. It is wet, heavy snow. If the kids ever wanted to build a snowman, today is the perfect snow for it. I’ll watch out the window! I am moderately worried that the wind, with wet snow clinging on everything will end up knocking out power. I hope that won’t be the case. I am sure the drifting and back roads will be awful for days. But for today, I am going to enjoy being home.
No comments:
Post a Comment