Southern Spring

I am sick of bad weather.

We are coming up on the anniversary of our 1,000 year (or 500 year) flood (it depends on who's talking what year it is), and the city is asking for volunteers to fill sandbags because - SURPRISE! - we're experiencing flooding again.

Within the past week, we've had numerous tornado warnings, storm damage, awful amounts of rain, hail, you name it.  Everyone is cranky and irritated (kids and staff included) because we're spending nights in basements, closets and anywhere deemed safe while the tornadoes are popping around, dealing without power, and having to hang out with insurance adjusters as they assess damage.

Let's see...last week we sent kids home early due to power problems throughout the county.

Monday night we had rotten storms again - more power outages - and even more damage than we had last week.  School was cancelled.  (Smart call).  We only lost power at home for 8 hours and I consider myself lucky.  Some people still don't have power.   One neighbor lost a tree, another lost most of his expensive, not even a year old, vinyl fence.  Trees everywhere and power lines down.

Last night more tornadoes, more time in the basement (did not lose power - yeah!) and we delayed school for an hour, and let out today an our early due to flooding.  Some teachers didn't make it in (trees in roads, trees through house, flooding, etc.) and a lot of kids stayed home because they were predicting more tornadoes today.

Can we just have some sunshine?

But truly, I'm thanking the Good Lord that it wasn't worse.  We're alive, and unharmed, and although tired, and cranky and a bit soggy, we really got lucky.  Other folks didn't get so lucky (just look at Alabama for example).  My heart goes out to them.

Dodging the Raindrops

Spring in the South can be a bit tricky.

The redbuds are out, the irises are blooming, the trees are leafing out, the grass is greening, and we're all trying to get our vegetable gardens in so we can have some great big huge ripe tomatoes come Independence Day.

However, one of the drawbacks to Spring in the South is Gawd-Awful rotten weather.

We just happen to live in the part of the country where cold fronts and warm fronts tend to bump into each other which means we get a lot - A LOT - of thunderstorms and rain and the occasional tornado.  When I went house-hunting when we first moved here, Hubby wanted one thing - a full, finished basement.  The primary reason was he had somewhere to put his office and our massive book collection but the other reason was "they have too many tornadoes and we'll need some place to go."  The fact that a tornado siren is down at the end of my street was just a bonus.  

Tuesday night they were predicting some really bad weather to come our way and I was hoping it would come through before it got too late.  I can't sleep during severe weather and really didn't want to spend most of the night in the basement.  As luck would have it, I was sound asleep when the tornado siren just about knocked me out of bed at 12:50 in the morning.  Great.  Hubby and I got the feline children in their kennels and got everyone downstairs pronto (we're getting really good at this and so are the cats).  We had just turned on the television to see what was going on when the power went out.   Fortunately we have plenty of flashlights and we pretty much sat in the dark, listening to my old Y2K wind up radio until the all clear sounded.  At that point we tried to go back to sleep but still didn't have any power.  Our power came on around 4:15, so I was one of the lucky ones.

By the time I headed to school around 6:15, it was barely light enough to see that there were a lot of trees down, street signs and stop signs laying flat on the ground, and debris all over the roads.  The traffic lights were out as well, which made it a bit dicey getting to school as some people don't seem to get a clue that when there's no traffic light, every intersection is considered a four way stop.  Surprisingly, when I got to The School, we actually had power.

We were one of the lucky ones.  Apparently power was out all over the county, including at a great many of our schools.  The high school down the road from us was dark, and there probably were only a handful of functioning traffic lights throughout the entire county.  Most of the kids rolled off the buses bleary eyed.  Half the staff didn't have power.  (There were some unusual color combinations and outfits spotted among staff and students, the result of getting dressed in the dark.)  By the time school started I was thanking my lucky stars that I actually had power since it appeared I was one of the fortunate few

As luck would have it, with so many schools without power (and with not good time frame from when they'd get power), the District decided to call it a day and pick everyone up and send everyone home.  Thankfully we won't have to make this day up (we're still making up time from our snow days this winter).  The seventh grade teachers - for once - got the best of this deal as our planning is 1st and 2nd period and they sent the kids home before 3rd.  

The forecast for the upcoming week pretty much indicates thunderstorms for the next five days.  It's Easter Sunday today and it's already rained 1.7" in my yard and still coming down.    I'm starting to worry a bit as we're coming up on the anniversary of  The Flood we had last year that many people are still recovering from.

But they say a flood like that comes along every 500 years....right.

Ah Spring

You have to love Spring in The South.  The daffodils...the greening of the grass...the Redbud trees and Bradford Pears in bloom.

And of course, we can't forget the tornadoes.

We had a warm weekend - actually hit 82 degrees which is pretty warm for this time of year, and a cold front was headed our way.  It was 70 when I got up this morning, and windy, so I knew we were in for a busy day in terms of weather.

And oh my, was it busy.

We got all the way through lunch without anything much than dark, ominous clouds, heavy rain and wind.

It wasn't until 5th period that The Principal came across the loud speaker, told us we were under a tornado warning, and requested that everyone get alongside the interior walls on the floor until further notice.  My fifth period is usually pretty good, so they lined up along the walls like they were told and I sat there on the floor and tried to conduct class the best I could.  We are, after all, in the midst of reviewing for The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Test, and I need every second of instruction time I can get.  So, although we were all on the floor, I did manage to go through a PowerPoint on body systems, did an activity on levels of organization, and, since we hadn't handed out their review books, read to them from their review book about diffusion.  It wasn't ideal, but I still got material covered, the kids were kept quiet (sort of) and we managed to make it through the end of the tornado warning.

I may add that the Enforcer, he who is in charge of safety and security, did away with the blaring tornado warning siren.  That thing going off for twenty minutes was enough to drive anyone mad.  Not only was it noisy and aggravating, but it made it fairly impossible to hear what was going on outside (I have no windows so I can't see anything.)  Trust me, if there's a tornado coming, I seriously want to hear about it before it smacks us.

The warning ended, we wrapped up class and headed into sixth period.

Where we had another warning, ended up on the floor, and I did my "teaching from the floor" lessons yet again.

And we had another one seventh period as well.  By then I had done more teaching from my spot on the floor against the wall than I had actually standing on my feet this day. This one was a little louder outside, the lights flickered a bit, but we made it through this last warning with flying colors.

Three different periods, three different tornado warnings.

Ah spring!

Just Can't Win With the Weather

So after the winter we've had (and I'm not sure it's all done yet), we've actually managed to go two full weeks of school without a snow day.  I know, pretty amazing, eh?  And, truth be told, it's been almost spring-like.

However, spring-like warm weather can often bring spring-like bad storms.  Nothing like a warm front and a cold front banging up against each other and producing thunderstorms and those lovely little things known as tornadoes.  We've already had the tornado sirens go off twice in the past week and it's still February.  Fortunately these have happened while we were at home, not during school, so it simply means hustling all the felines into the basement and  hunkering down until the storm passes (praying the whole time that we don't have any damage).  I must admit that the felines are not happy with these little interludes and spend most of the time in their kennels (so we don't have to chase them all over the basement during the storm) glaring at us with That Look of Complete Disdain that only cats can give.

Anyhow, all the weather sources were predicting A Really Bad Line of Storms coming through our areastarting last night and going into today.  Oh fun.  Usually that means little sleep between the storm, the sirens and the cats bouncing all over the place.  However, the sirens went off yesterday (while Mrs. Eagle and I were returning from Girls Night at the Hockey Game) and I missed that fun.  It settled down a bit and didn't get bad again until around 5:00 am this morning.

And then it just let loose.  Thunder, lightning and buckets of rain, not to mention lots and lots of wind (no tornado warnings, however, Thank Goodness.)  So I'm sitting there drinking my coffee and watching the weather as large yellow, green and orange blobs sailed through the map right over our town when the phone rang.

At 5:15 am.  What the heck?

It was, surprisingly enough, the School District.  Apparently they took a look outside, took a look at the radar and decided a two-hour delay was a good thing.  Good decision.  It was a mess,  a rainy, stormy, windy mess.  (Oh, and the temperature was 70 when I woke up, was 58 an hour later, and now is 38.)

Now, a two-hour delay means the kids have a delay but all the employees report at their normal time.  I didn't have to much trouble getting in, but a few teachers who live in some of the more rural areas, really had some issues.  The rivers in town are rising (almost as bad as last' year's 100 Year Flood, but thankfully, not quite) and it was raining so hard that the streets were having trouble draining.

But we made it through.  The good news is this counts for a full day.  The bad news is I'm hoping and praying that I get everything taught that I need to before The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests in April and I'm not feeling really confident about it.

Oh, It's Just Me Frying an Egg on the Sidewalk

It's nearly 5:00 pm and the temperature on my shaded front porch is 99.3 degrees Fahrenheit.   (Hey, I'm a science teacher, so of course I'm going to tell you whether I'm talking Celsius or Fahrenheit!)  The heat index is supposedly 111 degrees.  Just about 50 miles north of here the heat index is supposedly 122 degrees.

And school starts on Friday.

Some school districts in the region are delaying opening school since they apparently don't have functioning air conditioning systems.  We, however, do have functioning air conditioning (cross my fingers) so we're going to go ahead and start.  I feel bad for the kids who ride the bus because they are definitely not air conditioned.   All outside activities are canceled, which is smart.  Actually I've been at The School the past few days and it's been rather comfortable.  So, if nothing breaks, we're good to go on Friday.

Still, there's some concern about the fact that we start school so early in August - the hottest month of the year.  (And there are some districts who start in late July!)  Some argue that we could save money by not having to air condition schools as they'd be unoccupied by students.  Others argue that we've taken away kids' summers, so much so that there's a political action group here called Save Our Summers who would like to see statewide legislation requiring that school cannot start prior to Labor Day. 

Personally, it really doesn't matter much to me when we start school.  In fact, I wouldn't even mind year-round school.  As long as I have enough time to teach content prior to The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests, I'm happy.

But it got me to wondering...readers, when do you start school?  Any of you teach/attend a year-round school?  What do ya'll think???

In the meantime, I may just go cook supper out on the sidewalk.  You know, save some electricity.

The Curse of the Seventh Grade

I am beginning to think that this class of seventh graders has a curse hanging over their heads. Or, if not a curse, one big black miserable cloud.

First, their camping trip was canceled due to The Flood we had at the beginning of the month. Some of these kids had been looking forward to this since December and were besides themselves with excitement. I am still amazed at how well they took it when I gathered them up and explained that we just couldn't guarantee their safety and since the camping area was under water, there wasn't much we could do. They didn't whine, fuss, or complain. They just sucked it up.

Then, the kids in drama, most of whom are seventh graders, received the news that their play (a musical, no less) was going to be postponed until we return to school in the fall. They had lost precious rehearsal time, many of the kids still didn't know their lines, and The Flood just complicated things. Another major disappointment.

And then there was Field Day.

Field Day is a big deal for these kids. I mean who couldn't love a day of running around, screaming, eating snow cones and just having a grand old time with your friends and not being stuck in a classroom all day? (I'm not including the teachers in this statement. Most of us tolerate it. Barely.)

So, due to The Flood, instead of having field day on three successive Fridays, they had Field Day on three successive days. Sixth grade was on Wednesday (warm and clear), eighth grade was on Thursday (hot and clear) and ours was today.

Any guess on the weather?

They had been predicting thunderstorms and rain (NO! WE'RE TIRED OF RAIN!) all week. It wasn't raining this morning and so we went ahead and tried to give it a go. We got the volleyball tournament started in the gym and while that was going on, the skies opened up. Great. It was raining like mad.

But then it stopped.

And they decided instead of 15 point games, they'd do 21 point games to take up time in the hopes that it dry up outside. And it sort of did so we were able to take the kids out for the kickball portion of the day. The PTA had hot dogs and Gatorade for the kids (free with a ticket from their teacher), they had other snacks to buy, and although it was a tad muddy on the field, the pavement was dry, the sun was shining and it was hot and muggy.

Awesome.

And then we could hear thunder in the distance. And it got cloudier. And we just finished up the last game of the kickball tournament and had taken the kids inside for lunch when it began to rain again.

Wonderful.

But it gets better.

The kids are in the cafeteria eating lunch, we're down the hall in the teacher lunchroom eating pizza (delayed Teacher Appreciation Lunch which was supposed to happen during the week of The Flood), and Mrs. Sparrow, the assistant principal is there with the radio. All of a sudden were hear The Principal come on the radio and announce that she's going to have to pull the tornado drill alarm as we were under a tornado warning. She then mentioned that all the teachers who had kids in the cafeteria had to go get them out of there and into the hallway where it's safer.

Most of us were sprinting out of the lunch room and into the cafeteria before the alarm went off and we hustled the kids out and into the hallway. I got in there so fast that my kids looked like they didn't know what was going on. They figured it out pretty fast, and hustled toward the door. We got all 300 kids out of there in record time, into the hallway, and down into the tornado position. Getting them quiet was the tough part, but they finally quieted down and we stayed in there for nearly 45 minutes.

Let me tell you, being in a long hallway with a bunch of kids, and insisting they be quiet so we can hear directions on the one radio we had, is tough.

Finally it was over, we let them go back and finish their lunch, and then we went back to our classes. It was still raining. We finally gave up on finishing field day and got the word that they are going to try it again later next week when the weather is supposed to be better. The remainder of today we basically let them relax and watched some videos. Of course, being the science geek I am, I had them watch one on tornadoes.

Appropriate, eh?

I hope next week everything works as planned. I really, really do.

The Five Hundred Year Flood

At least that's what they are calling it now.

Our kids have missed an entire week of school. Staff reported on Thursday and Friday. It was decided that since the River was still above flood stage, and since the alternate bus routes would involve 2 1/2 hour commutes to and from school, the kids were staying home (smart call). I was one of the lucky ones because my drive to school wasn't impacted much by the flooding so it didn't take me any longer than normal. Some of the staff had to take detours - long detours - and had drives well over an hour, when normally it would take maybe twenty minutes. Traffic in most parts of town was bumper to bumper.

These past two days, without students, were really productive. We were able to work on finalizing grades for our retention and promotion meetings, get field day rescheduled, get our academic award party for the team organized. We do have one problem with the academic award party as the guy we usually buy our plaques from was, sadly, flooded out. So we're going to have to find another vendor as his phone is not being answered (I was hoping he may be working out of his house).

We did, unfortunately, have to cancel the field trip for the kids. No camping this year. Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Bunny and I had a conference call on Wednesday and decided that we couldn't guarantee our kids' safety. The river is still a mess, things are still flooded, roads are still washing out, and it was just too full of unknowns. So we canceled. I'm sure there are a lot of disappointed kids out there, but honestly, not a single complaint from a single parent. They probably wouldn't let them go anyway.

Amazingly, out of our entire staff, only one of us suffered serious damage to a home (many were stuck and stranded for a few days). Our librarian had 6' of water in her basement and floating freezer and goodness knows what else. She's already applied to FEMA for aid as they had no flood insurance. Then again, many people who got flooded out didn't even live in the 100 year flood zone so the insurance issue is going to be a mess. We're still not sure how many of our kids got displaced, however. We hope to find out on Monday when we're back to school.

I do have another friend, a lady I serve on a board with, who pretty much has lost everything. She's one of those fantastic ladies who does a lot for the community, her church, the arts, you name it. A real classy lady. It breaks my heart that she lost her husband to cancer two years ago, and now her home. Sadly, she's not alone. It's been a pretty tragic week down here.

The Hundred Year Flood, Part Two

Monday - no school.

Tuesday - no school.

They've called school for Wednesday as well. Fortunately they also said they were going to approach the State Department of Education and try to have these days forgiven. I hope so. Our kids have been through enough already.

The river is supposed to crest at 1:00 am Wednesday morning. Hopefully the weather will stay clear and dry - it's been amazingly beautiful and warm. Good weather to clean out the damp part of the garage, sort through everything, toss out stuff, apply more Drylock, and put things in plastic tubs. I'm beat. Going to school would be a relief.

Many of our staff are still stranded. The terrain here is rolling hills along with rivers and creeks that criss-cross the county. Just about every low point with a bridge is closed. Getting from one side of town to the other is a challenge so Hubby and I are staying put except for a quick trip to Lowes for more supplies. We have plenty of food and water, the power is on (never went off) and although the waste water plant is shut down, we have water.

We may make a visit to rescue our friend Mrs. Littlebird, who is stuck in between two flooded roads. Her youngest, who is a non-verbal autistic, does not understand why he can't go to Burger King and everyone at the Littlebird house is stir-crazy. They can walk through the floodwaters to get to a road where we can pick them up so we may do that just to give them some peace and a change of pace.

The camping trip, alas, may be a wash (pardon the pun). We'll have to see. Mrs. Bunny, Mrs. Eagle and I are going to talk about it tomorrow, and see what The Principal has to say. There's the issue of transportation, the issue that the river won't be cresting near our camping area until the weekend, they may be using the campsite dorms for emergency shelters, and if everything is flooded, what can we do with the kids anyway?

And then there's the snakes. One thing flood waters leave in their wake down here are unpleasant creatures like water moccasins. I am not taking kids camping in a snake-infested zone. Sorry, just not doing that.

We may have to reschedule, if possible. Or we may do something special for the kids if we ever get back to school. A cookout at a local park, or something. I honestly don't know at this point.

I just really want to get back to school and see how my kids are.

In the meantime, if you are moved to help, go here:

Middle Tennessee Red Cross

The Hundred Year Flood

It was bad in 1932.

It's worse this year.

Nashville had over 13" of rain and the rivers are still rising.  Schools closed, businesses damaged, lots of homes and lives lost.   Nashville, and the surrounding areas, are being impacted hard.  We are closed again today, most of our downtown in closed off, and I'm thankful I live on a hill because I'm high and dry.  We have a curfew and are asked to stay home, if possible.

Since I haven't seen much in the national media on this, thought I'd share a couple of links with you in case you'd like to see what's going on down here in The Volunteer State (and what an appropriate name - you've never seen so many people reach out to help perfect strangers).

The best local coverage is at News Channel 5 - check out the videos of LP field under water, the house floating down I-24, Opryland under water, and the rock quarry waterfall (and the quarry was full in a few hours).


The Tennessean also has some good coverage and photos. 

If you are a Facebook fan, you can find lots of photos and videos there as well.  Youtube, as well has a lot of videos.

Pray for us.  It's going to be a long recovery.

Just When You Thought The Year Couldn't Get Any Crazier....

Sigh.

After seven snow days, and several weeks of longer school days to make up the snow days (we only have three allotted in our calendar), we get this:

Rain.  Lots of it.  Lots and lots and lots of it.  (Actually, we got more than that...I emptied out the rain gauge when it hit 8" a little bit ago and It Is Still Raining.)

And school is closed tomorrow due to flooding.

Heavens, we down here in the Volunteer State have even made the National News - nothing like video of a building floating down I-24 to get national attention.  It has been something else.  Most of West and Middle Tennessee is one big fat wet mess.

I have students being evacuated from their flooded apartments.  The school behind my house is a shelter.  And with only 15 and a half days left of school...we have an inclement weather day.

Amazing.

Oh, and last weekend?  We had this:

That's hail on my deck.  And leaves stuck all over the place.  And a glider that needed to be repainted a bit but even more so now that it got "hail blasted".  But hey, I didn't lose a tree like just about everyone else in the neighborhood.

Spring in the South.

Finally! Back to School - Again

So yesterday, President's Day, was supposed to be a holiday.

However.

The School Board voted last week to have us attend school, just like normal, in order to make up one of the four snow days we have had over our meager allotment of three.

So you know what happened, don't you?

It snowed.

And we didn't go to school.

So we lost our makeup day.

Sigh.

The good news is that today we managed to get to school. Granted, it was with an hour delay - and some of the bus drivers said that a two hour would have been a bit safer with the black ice that's still out there - but we still had school.

Finally.

The forecast? No snow until the weekend.

Oh, and our regular average temp for this time of the year? 51 Degrees. We haven't seen 51 for a month or more.

Basking in the Heat

We have, since the first of the year, broken a record held since 1885 for the number of days where the temperature never got above freezing. (Nine, in case you're wondering.)

Not a big deal if you live in, say, Montana, but when you're in the Beloved South it's news.

So the fact that it's now in the 50's (which is above normal), is a relief to most of us who were sick and tired of cold, icy classrooms. This is more like it.

And the ingredients were all there - a Friday, temps finally in the mid-50's, and only two weeks left of the month.

Yup, it was a perfect day for the mandatory monthly fire drill!

And Yet Another

Snow Day Number Two.

Surprisingly, it was called on Thursday afternoon (which allowed many of us to stay awake and watch the BCS championship game without worrying about how little sleep we'd get on a school night). Amazing how fast the emails and text messages flew among the faculty when the call came out about a second snow day. Although not much snow was predicted, the roads off the main drags were a mess.

The terrain here is hilly and curvy with lots of dips and turns in most of the roads, even many that are within the city limits. Mr. Bluebird and I went out and ran errands yesterday, and there were some roads that were just fine, but others were littered with abandoned (and in some cases, smashed up) vehicles. Unfortunately, when it's icy and cold (and it's a whopping 18 degrees right now), this can be treacherous.

The Guidance Goddess lives in a rural part of the county, at the foot of the hill. She spent most of the day watching people attempt to climb the hill, fail, and then slide backwards. By the end of the night she'd seen four wrecks, including a beautiful new truck that appeared to have been totaled, and was getting used to the blue and red flashing lights blinking on and off at the foot of her driveway.

It is also brutally cold for this part of the country. Most of our homes are heated with electric heat and heat pumps and trust me, when it gets to about 20 degrees outside, those heat pumps just can't cut it. I'm lucky to keep it around 63-64 degrees in the house right now, so I'm thankful that I am a knitter and have lots of warm woolly things to help keep us warm. We won't hit 32 degrees until maybe Monday.

And to make it worse...it was warmer this morning in Chicago - Chicago! - than it was here.

That's just plain wrong, folks.

Snow Day!

Despite the fact that we always seem to be the last district to close school for weather, the call finally went out early this morning. Thankfully the local news had The District on the scroll when I got up around 4:30 and NOT around 5:30 when I was already one shower and three cups of coffee into my morning. Of course the worst was when Mrs. Eagle and I were Already At School when they canceled. That was depressing.

However, I'm not doing the real major happy dance because this is NOT the time of year to have a snow day. We've just come back from two blissful weeks out of school and the kids have been great, and everything was going well. We were getting into the groove, and amazing, nearly all my kids - except for five - turned in their first homework assignment! Astounding! Amazing! We were onto something!

And then this.

Snow days are much more appreciated a little bit later into the grading period when we've Had It Up to Here with the kids and they're tired and cranky with cold weather and gray skies, and we all need a mental health break to snuggle up under a warm blanket and read a book that has nothing to do with education.

But hey, I'll take a snow day when I can get it. However, we only get three, and it's not looking too good for tomorrow. Hopefully this won't be one of those years where we have to make up days at the end of the year.

Stoking the Fires

Day Three of The Week With Little Heat.

I arrive, bundled up because, after all, it's only freaking ELEVEN degrees outside, and find out that the building is a tad warmer.

Okay, okay, maybe it just feels warmer after walking in from a freaking ELEVEN degrees, but I'll take my victories where I can.

But it honestly felt warmer.

And then, as I walked to my room, the smell hit me. You know that smell that a furnace gives off when you first get it lit at the beginning of the winter season? Kind of a musty burning weird smell? Well we had it. Which could of meant one of two things. One, the furnace blew up and we're about ready to burn down or two, we finally have heat in the old part of the building.

Fortunately it was the second option and we had heat. It wasn't balmy by any means, but better. Teachers and kids weren't wearing ski parkas in class, but had downgraded to hoodies and sweaters.

Victory!

But it's still freaking cold outside. And they're calling for snow.

Polar Expedition

This morning when I left...11 degrees.

Never got higher than 24 degrees.

The School? Still chilly, but better than yesterday. I was prepared (hand knit wool socks, short sleeved shirt, jacket over that, and mittens and gloves if needed). My room was better than yesterday but still not up to the tropical zone that we've become used to. (I could do with it being a little cooler, personally.) The kids whined and complained about how cold it was so I reminded them that it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to bring a sweatshirt or something to wear in class.

Mrs. Eagle's team area, however, was still polar. When we walked our classes down to lunch we saw some of Mrs. Eagle's kids round the corner. They were all bundled up, collars zipped tight, gloves and mittens on, and some even had scarves wrapped around their heads.

Nuts.

Apparently there were maintenance guys working down in the basement all day trying to fix the lack of heat problem. As of 3:00 this afternoon still no heat.

Any guesses on tomorrow?

Oh yeah, and they're calling for snow late tomorrow night.

Peachy.

Excuse Me, But Is The Freezer in Room 30?

For those of you who pay attention to things like weather (I am an admitted Weather Channel fan as well as a fan of the National Weather Service) most of the country has been under a real deep freeze since the weekend.

My Beloved South is no exception. It was 11 degrees on Saturday morning, 10 on Sunday, and today back up to 11. We haven't been higher than the mid 20's since the weekend, and it doesn't look like we'll be hitting freezing at 32 degrees until next week sometime.

Now for those of you who live Up North and are laughing hysterically over these balmy temperatures, please note that I was living in Ohio in 1994 (if I remember correctly) when we had the Coldest Day in Ohio History. I don't remember what the temperature was because I was knocked over when I saw on the news that morning that we had a wind chill of -71 degrees. Yes, that is MINUS 71 degrees. I kid you not. Needless to say the car didn't start that day.

Anyhow.

Seeing as how cold it has been I mentioned to the Hubby yesterday that I hoped that someone was going in and turning the heat on in The Building because it was going to be really, really cold in there when we showed up on Monday morning if they didn't. The District had turned off all the heat in all the facilities (cost savings, dontcha know it?) and as luck would have it, we ended up with the coldest temperatures of the season.

Believing in being well-prepared, I wore multiple layers, wool socks, heavy down jacket (dug out of the "haven't worn since we moved to the South closet"), wool mittens, and was prepared for a rather chilly building. Thank goodness I did this.

The newer part of the building where the eighth grade classrooms are, for the most part, was just fine. The older part of the building, where the seventh grade and sixth grade classes are, was cold. My room was one of the warmest (and I usually hate it because it's so hot in there most mornings) and even then I was wearing my jacket most of the day. The rooms we did our workshops in were all chilly.

But nothing prepared me for Mrs. Eagle's team area.

It was so cold in their area that you could feel the cold air blast you in the face as you turned the corner. So cold, in fact, that if you didn't know any better you would have thought all the teachers had their outside doors propped open. They didn't. It was just amazingly cold. Mrs. Eagle was so cold she couldn't work in her room (even with her outside gear on) and she ended up in my room most of the day. It felt like a walk in restaurant freezer. I'm surprised her fish tank didn't have ice floating in it.

A work order was issued and somehow someone is supposed to come fix whatever is going on with the heat system that it no longer is working like it should (and it was replaced only a few years ago so it should work).

Any guesses on whether or not it will be working when the kids arrive tomorrow?

Field Day?

According to the rain gauge in my back yard, we have had 4" of rain since Thursday. My yard looks like a jungle. Seriously. I have grass up to my knees.

(That being said, it's not like I have a decent lawn to start with - it looks like pasture. It's a mix of weeds, crabgrass, zoisya, bluegrass, fescue, clover and goodness knows what else. But some of it is growing up to my knees.)

Any bets on whether or not we'll have field day on Monday (when it's scheduled)?

Our makeup day is Wednesday.

Wanna guess what the forecast is for Wednesday?

Yup. More rain.

Germ Factories and Sound of Ice

Monday morning found Mrs. Social Studies crawling into class, unable to hear out of her left ear, her right ear wasn't much better, and her face was tingling. We found a sub and she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Before she left, she said it was weird not being able to hear anything the students were saying. In some cases, it might be considered a blessing.

Mrs. Social Studies was not alone. All three administrators are sick, with The Principal croaking her way through morning announcements as she's the only one with a voice. A whole slew of teachers were out with the flu and just about every other contagion available. And I had what I thought was perhaps strep throat (were talking pain, here) but the test came back negative and was diagnosed as a weird throat virus that's going around. Oh yippee. So it was ibuprofen, salt water gargles, cough drops, rest, and oh yeah, try not to talk.

They were calling for a Really Bad Winter Weather Event to hit our area, so we were all hoping for a snow day today. Honestly, with the number of kids sniffling and croaking in class and along with the amount of teachers that were sick as well, a snow day would have been a blessing.

Except it wasn't snow. It was ice.

When the alarm went off at 5:00, I checked the temperature (31 degrees) and looked outside. It was raining and everything was shining with a glaze of ice. The local news reported that school was closed, which was pretty much a no-brainer. Most of the counties in this part of the state closed due to ice.

Since I have trouble going back to sleep once I'm awake, I sort of lazed around a bit, watched the kitties wrestle and chase each other, and prayed we wouldn't lose power.

Mrs. Eagle called a few hours later to find out what I was doing.

"Just reading. Drinking hot liquids that make my throat feel better. You?"

"I've been up since 2:30 am," she said.

"Why on earth?" I asked her. Mrs. Eagle, like me, can be a light sleeper.

"That's when all the tree branches around the house started to snap. It sounded like shotgun blasts all night long. I kept wondering if one was going to come crashing through the roof," she said.

She had power still, which is a plus. According to the local news, there's quite a few places in the county that don't have any power and may not get any anytime soon. They are calling for more ice and snow tonight, and more power outages, so hubby and I have been collecting gear just in case - candles, the little portable generator, my Civil War reenacting cooking gear, the little BBQ, and briquettes. We figure if the power goes out and lasts more than a day or so, we can at least cook something hot to eat in the BBQ on the driveway. I used to do a lot of camping and cooking over open fires, so that skill may come in handy yet again. As long as I can make myself a hot cup of coffee, I'll be fine. Even if I have to make it in the rain and snow in my driveway.

As for school tomorrow? Who knows? We have parent teacher conferences scheduled for Thursday. Past experience points to the fact that the parents won't come out unless the weather is clear and dry. We may end up sitting there playing cards all night waiting for parents to show up.

That is if we even have school by then.

How to Take 60 7th Graders Camping and Live to Tell About it, Part II

When you plan a field trip the one thing you hope for, and the one thing you have no control over, is good weather. Honestly, there's little worse than a bunch of wet and whiny kids (not to mention wet and whiny teachers). As luck would have it, we had three days of outdoor activities planned and the weather was definitely not cooperating.

The first raindrops fell as the buses pulled out of the parking lot. The kids screamed with joy and the adults heaved great sighs and crossed our fingers. The weather reports for Friday were not looking promising, although the rest of the weekend looked good. We all figured if we could make it through Friday, we'd be okay.

As luck would have it, the storms would race through, we'd have a window of time with no rain, and then another series of storms would go through. It was soggy, it was gray, but the kids didn't seem to care. When we got to the camp we managed to have a break in the weather long enough to get the buses unloaded and the kids moved into the dorms.

The idea this weekend was to get the kids broken down into five groups and rotate through a series of activities - canoeing, orienteering, a stream study, and some challenge courses. Friday was also to include a night hike where we would take the kids out on a hike without flashlights. It sounds crazy, but the kids love it and by the end of the hike they realize how easy it is to navigate in the dark once your eyes get used to it.

Obviously we had to toss all our plans aside as the weather wasn't going to cooperate at all. First off, it was so windy there was no way we were going to get anyone out on the lake, and the series of storms heading our way looked to be fairly large. We did manage to get them outside for some basketball and tag before supper (which they devoured - the food here is good), and then the rangers put together an activity on bats which involved a lot of moving around on the part of the kids. Bless their hearts for coming up with a tag game where some kids played trees, others were moths, and still others were blindfolded and played bats. They had to find their moths by listening (a skill most 7th graders haven't mastered yet) to the trees and moths who had to yell out "tree!" and "moth" as the bat got close. It was hilarious and it was great fun. These kids may be jaded 13 year olds, but they enjoy a good game of tag when given the opportunity.

Afterwards Mrs. Bunny and I did some consultation with the camp director who showed us the computer so we could watch the National Weather Service for warnings as these storms had already caused some damage out West. (I also had a mother send along a weather radio, complete with alarm). We were given a key to the lower dorms which were unoccupied and told that if a tornado warning did get issued to hustle everyone down there and into the bathrooms. We were crossing our fingers that most of the really bad stuff would head south of us and we'd just get some good thunderstorms out of it, but you never know in this part of the country.

Mrs. Bunny looks at me and says, "Freaking figures we'd be out here and they'd have a stupid tornado."

I agreed. That's just our luck. I could only imagine what some of the parents were thinking, let alone The Principal who was probably worried sick as well.

Fortunately, while the adults were worrying about a possible tornado, the kids were just having the time of their lives. They had worked out shower schedules, were playing charades, and cards, and just having a great time. Luckily none of them seemed to be frightened over thunder and lightning (or at least not enough to show in front of all their peers), so we didn't get any fussing about that. Around midnight we finally got everyone settled, calmed down, and quiet and we all drifted asleep to the sound of thunder rumbling across the lake and the flash of lightning.

Now if only Saturday would be clear and sunny...