Snow Day

Snow Day
Friday, February 7th, 2014

On Thursday at 2:00pm (one hour before school was dismissed) I had an administrator come into my classroom asking me if I needed to leave to get home. I do not have any windows in my classroom, but I knew it had been snowing since about 11am with not much success of sticking. During my class right after lunch, I teach in a computer lab and opened the blinds to be able to watch it snow, which the students loved. So during our last period of the day, the students were anxious and every time an announcement was made over the intercom, they listened attentively- wanting to be able to cheer with joy for the news of school closure. After two administrators stopped by my room and three announcements during the next 45 minutes they finally dismissed school 15 minutes early.

I quickly packed my personal belongings and headed outside, thinking to myself "why did I wear heels today?" My colleague, Cherish, was outside already scraping snow off her car parked next to mine. A total of 3 inches had stuck well with a thin layer of ice below. I started my car which hesitated only a little and then used the Tupperware lid from my lunch box to begin plowing off the snow. Cherish lent me her ice scraper and then the defrost began to work to remove the rest. I eased out of the parking space, sliding a little because of the slight incline and eased my way onto the street to begin my journey home. I drove 30mph and took the side roads home instead of the highway 99W where there would be more traffic to collide with and an expectation of faster pace. Slow and steady I made it home in 30 minutes, twice as long as the 9.3 mile commute usually takes.

Gordon had come home at 2pm from the office to avoid the slippery and steep chaos of River Road and the icy Independence Willamette River bridge which most always causes an accident with the least bit of ice. At 6:30pm Dallas School District announced the closure of school for the following day. Big flakes were drifting down and the measuring instruments came out to record the event as the snow accumulated. We had a nice dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup and cinnamon rolls for dessert.

Almost three inches

Five inches

Nine inches

Scientific Inquiry

It continued to snow throughout the day on Friday. We went for a few walks around the neighborhood while watching the families tow their kids behind four wheelers on inner-tubes, kids building snowmen and snow-forts, and encouraging snowball fights to ensue.  We played with our neighbors dog, Oolie, and laughed a lot as she would pounce like a rabbit as the snow got too deep for her to walk through and as she stuffed her face into the snow to retrieve her tennis ball. We watched a lot of episodes of "Bones" and lounged about the house.

 Saturday we woke to ice pellets raining on top of the foot of snow and a white sky. Our neighbor Cec invited us to go for a drive with her dog Oolie and we set off about 10:30am. Huge fluffy flakes were then coming down and the four wheel drive vehicles were the only type out and about. Some sliding around and deep crunching sounds of the thin layer of ice broke beneath the tires as we pushed through the unbeaten tracks on the side roads. Winco was open and we stocked up on Junior Mints, Crunchy Cheetos, yogurt, cereal, and some butter for much needed cookies (snickerdoodles? yet to be determined).  

 We plowed through the foot of snow to make it to the sidewalk in front of our house, and then helped out our neighbors as well. This is the first time we shoveled snow since we lived in Bulgaria when it snowed about a foot in 2007. This is a good exercise after a lot of snow window and movie/ episode watching and snacking on tasty food. All of our events for the weekend had been cancelled: hanging with family up in McMinnville (a thirty minute drive north on highway 99W) and Stake Conference (that would be up on the Eola Hill in Salem of which all the routes there have now been officially closed due to the number of accidents in traffic). At this moment we are watching the last Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and have dinner plans with our neighbor Cec (pork tenderloin). Let it snow! Other projects on the itinerary: piano playing, skirt sewing, and more movie/ episode watching. Maybe we will even make some time to watch some Winter Olympics.