I'll be damned...
The weather forecasters nailed Snowpocalypse for once. It started several hours later than they originally predicted (which was okay since we had plans Saturday night for a gathering with friends which we were able to carry out, since the snow didn't start till after midnight), but we ended up getting major snow--at least for this area. The official total at the airport was something like 10.8", and a National Weather Service employee measured 12.5" in the city park a block from my house. Then the bottom fell out of the thermometer and it got down to something like 8 below zero (Fahrenheit, not Celsius) Sunday night, warmed to around minus one yesterday, and went back down to about minus four last night. Right now, it's a balmy 23 degrees outside, and only supposed to drop a few degrees overnight. Tomorrow it's supposed to almost reach freezing.
Yes, I realize that in some places this kind of weather is called "January". But I don't live in those places. The last time the high was below zero in St. Louis was 1989, and we rarely get a foot of snow all at once. School was called off yesterday and today, though I fully expect we'll go back tomorrow. Some of the districts that are more hilly and have buses might still close, but not the little mid-county ones. Though the side streets here in the city are still awful. Still, I was able to clear most of the snow off my van, get it out of its parking spot, drive around the block, and re-park without difficulty. Here in the city, garages are rare--we have one but the garage door doesn't work--so lots of people park on the street. The city says it will treat residential streets with chemicals now that it's warm enough for them to work, but won't plow the side streets because then people will be stuck again.
I'm okay with the snow days--it leaves me stuck, still, at 93 more contract days, but on the other hand I didn't have to try and get the car out in sub-zero weather. Pretty much nobody seemed to be going anywhere yesterday--even the spousal unit got a snow day--but today most places that weren't schools seemed to be business as usual. And the forecast claims that by Sunday, highs will be in the upper 40s and it won't go below freezing. If you don't like Missouri weather, wait five minutes.
We had our two inservice days last week. The "curriculum day" was used by everyone I talked to, including me, to get stuff ready for this (now shortened) week; the "technology day" was one of the bigger wastes of time I've experienced. Its purpose was basically to (a) show us how to do things with Gmail, which the district is switching to as of July 1, and (b) sell people on various Google apps. Since, coincidentally, my official first day of retirement is July 1, I had a reason not to be interested, but other teachers at my table also said they got little out of it. For one thing, getting between 60 and 120 people in a single room trying to use a less-than-robust wireless network is kind of a recipe for disaster!
So, regular readers may remember that I rejoiced when Dr. Pointy-Hair, the former superintendent, retired and was replaced by the assistant superintendent, a reasonable-seeming man. From what I am hearing, power has gone to his head and he is trying to be Dr. Pointy-Hair The Second. Weird stuff is happening. Most of it doesn't involve me, and that which sort of does or could I can pretty safely ignore at this point, but I am regretting my decision not at all now.
On the SCA front, it looks like we might be able to go to Pennsic this year for war week. The spousal unit appears to have enough vacation time to cover that as well as his dad's 90th birthday, Lilies, and our two weeks in Ireland beginning at the end of September. This makes me very happy...I loves me some Pennsic!
Yes, I realize that in some places this kind of weather is called "January". But I don't live in those places. The last time the high was below zero in St. Louis was 1989, and we rarely get a foot of snow all at once. School was called off yesterday and today, though I fully expect we'll go back tomorrow. Some of the districts that are more hilly and have buses might still close, but not the little mid-county ones. Though the side streets here in the city are still awful. Still, I was able to clear most of the snow off my van, get it out of its parking spot, drive around the block, and re-park without difficulty. Here in the city, garages are rare--we have one but the garage door doesn't work--so lots of people park on the street. The city says it will treat residential streets with chemicals now that it's warm enough for them to work, but won't plow the side streets because then people will be stuck again.
I'm okay with the snow days--it leaves me stuck, still, at 93 more contract days, but on the other hand I didn't have to try and get the car out in sub-zero weather. Pretty much nobody seemed to be going anywhere yesterday--even the spousal unit got a snow day--but today most places that weren't schools seemed to be business as usual. And the forecast claims that by Sunday, highs will be in the upper 40s and it won't go below freezing. If you don't like Missouri weather, wait five minutes.
We had our two inservice days last week. The "curriculum day" was used by everyone I talked to, including me, to get stuff ready for this (now shortened) week; the "technology day" was one of the bigger wastes of time I've experienced. Its purpose was basically to (a) show us how to do things with Gmail, which the district is switching to as of July 1, and (b) sell people on various Google apps. Since, coincidentally, my official first day of retirement is July 1, I had a reason not to be interested, but other teachers at my table also said they got little out of it. For one thing, getting between 60 and 120 people in a single room trying to use a less-than-robust wireless network is kind of a recipe for disaster!
So, regular readers may remember that I rejoiced when Dr. Pointy-Hair, the former superintendent, retired and was replaced by the assistant superintendent, a reasonable-seeming man. From what I am hearing, power has gone to his head and he is trying to be Dr. Pointy-Hair The Second. Weird stuff is happening. Most of it doesn't involve me, and that which sort of does or could I can pretty safely ignore at this point, but I am regretting my decision not at all now.
On the SCA front, it looks like we might be able to go to Pennsic this year for war week. The spousal unit appears to have enough vacation time to cover that as well as his dad's 90th birthday, Lilies, and our two weeks in Ireland beginning at the end of September. This makes me very happy...I loves me some Pennsic!