We have our first snow day of the year today.
Well, actually it's more of an ice day since that's what's on the ground - and roads - hence the cancellation of school. It pretty much rained all day yesterday. However, when I left my house yesterday morning at 6:00 am it was 55 degrees on my front porch. When I got to school fifteen minutes later it had already dropped to 45 degrees. It continued to drop - and rain - all day long and by yesterday evening ice was starting to form.
Having spent about fifteen years up North where it snows and ices and generally is ugly from about November through March, I have some experience driving in stupid weather conditions. However, when ice is in the picture, I'm not driving anywhere. It's dangerous and it's scary and there's too many idiots with testosterone poisoning who think that because they have a four wheeled drive vehicle they can drive at high rates of speed on icy roads and nothing bad will happen to them. Wrong.
So I have a day off and I'm not terribly excited about it.
Why? Snow days are precious. We get three a year and using one right before we get off for our Christmas break is a waste of a perfectly good snow day. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Snow days are better spent in the deep dark depths of January and February and even March where we don't have many extra days off, the weather is gloomy, the kids are cranky, and it seems like forever until there's something to look forward to.
But at least I'm not out there driving on that mess!
P.S. Some of you have commented on still having school in very cold snowy weather, so I probably haven't explained how things work down here. I was stunned - stunned - the first year I was here and a snow day was called as it was barely snowing (at least in my opinion as an economic refugee from Up North). However, maybe only 20%, at most, of our kids walk to school. The rest are bused in, some from about an hour away in the rural parts of the county. There is also no such thing as a straight road here. Everything is hilly, curvy and there are more rivers, branches of rivers, creeks and whatnot to cross to get anywhere in this area. So, when it gets icy (and we get more ice than snow), it gets treacherous and no one wants to be the person responsible for a bus crash on an iced over bridge or narrow rural road. So, they cancel school.
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5 comments:
We don't get snow days here in Chicago. EVER! I've been teaching for CPS for nearly 20 years, and I haven't had one yet. We had similar weather here, 50 on Sunday, by Monday morning below zero windchill, so it was an ice fest here, as well. But, I find those days (the ones that should have been cancelled) are usually a joy because only a handful of kids show up, and we get to have fun all day. I had 6 kids out yesterday. We took out centers we don't usually get to use, and we made an impromptu Christmas project since I had a managable group size.
Hmm, here in Wisconsin it was -4 this morning, but we had school as usual, followed by a holiday concert this past evening!
Better safe than sorry: Keep those buses off the road if there's ANY chance of an accident!
Would you believe we had a snow day in Las Vegas?
I am VERY jealous. In all my years of teaching, I have never had a snow day. Although it can often be bitterly cold here in London during the winter months, snow is rare. It is much colder and much wetter in Glasgow, yet I never had a snow day while I was working there either. I hope you enjoyed it and made the most of it!
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