Half A Snow Day
Wednesday, 30 January 2008 14:11![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsForecast Low For Wednesday, 14degF
That was the forecast a day or so ago. Actual low this morning was 5 degF. Impossible to tell how much drifting there is in the driveway. Not that much snow fell, but winds in the 20-30 mph range and gusting much higher -- you can never tell.
By 11pm last night I was pretty sure I wouldn't be testing the roads today. At 1:30am the Michigan State Police said Do Not Drive. And the power went off-on-off-on-off-on for a couple of seconds, but not enough to trip the backup generator, just reset a clock and the VCR.
At 6:30am Grand Valley State University joined the growing list of nearly 500 schools in the TV viewing areas to close for the day. A small voice from the bedroom cheered or said something -- not sure which. (grin -- Mrs. Dr. Phil works at GVSU) A stretch of I-96 near us reportedly had 50 cars in the ditch. Parts of I-94 were closed. Kalamazoo listed as dicey driving.
And Western Michigan University did not close.
Sigh
Well, I canceled my 11am class anyway, punted the 4pm joint seminar with the Honors Math prof to him, if he was going to be there, and told the PHYS-1800 people I'd miss the 10am lecture, where I was supposed to tell my Superman X-Ray vision story, and the 2pm Team Meeting.
Not sure if the new President at WMU thought that Kalamazoo and WMU had any clear concept of how to deal with bad roads -- they don't -- or whether they figured enough students lived within walking distance they might as well hold whatever classes they could. I do know when I tried to call the Physics Dept. at 10am, to confirm the e-mails I'd sent at 7am regarding putting up signs about canceling class and moving Exam 1 from Thursday to Friday, no one answered. Maybe someone just stepped out, but I suspect the dept. secretary might've wisely stayed home so the office was short-handed.
Anyway, we're both warm and toasty inside. Have not braved the below-zero wind chills outside. Oh, and the garbage will just have to sit in the can for a week -- I wasn't going to truck the can out to road and have the can and lid blown away where it can get run over again. (grin)
Later.
Dr. Phil
UPDATE at 3:45pm: Went out for mail and newspaper. Our road is east-west and though a bit icy is windswept (and COLD!). Our driveway is north-south and has some drifting -- but thankfully the stand of trees blocks some of the drifting while allowing some other snow to settle. Up to 6" in the trees, almost a foot on one side of the driveway by the "lawn".
It was sunny whilst I was out. Now the wind has whipped up again and it is dark and foreboding. (grin) Welcome to Mordor in January? (double-grin) Dr. Phil
That was the forecast a day or so ago. Actual low this morning was 5 degF. Impossible to tell how much drifting there is in the driveway. Not that much snow fell, but winds in the 20-30 mph range and gusting much higher -- you can never tell.
By 11pm last night I was pretty sure I wouldn't be testing the roads today. At 1:30am the Michigan State Police said Do Not Drive. And the power went off-on-off-on-off-on for a couple of seconds, but not enough to trip the backup generator, just reset a clock and the VCR.
At 6:30am Grand Valley State University joined the growing list of nearly 500 schools in the TV viewing areas to close for the day. A small voice from the bedroom cheered or said something -- not sure which. (grin -- Mrs. Dr. Phil works at GVSU) A stretch of I-96 near us reportedly had 50 cars in the ditch. Parts of I-94 were closed. Kalamazoo listed as dicey driving.
And Western Michigan University did not close.
Sigh
Well, I canceled my 11am class anyway, punted the 4pm joint seminar with the Honors Math prof to him, if he was going to be there, and told the PHYS-1800 people I'd miss the 10am lecture, where I was supposed to tell my Superman X-Ray vision story, and the 2pm Team Meeting.
Not sure if the new President at WMU thought that Kalamazoo and WMU had any clear concept of how to deal with bad roads -- they don't -- or whether they figured enough students lived within walking distance they might as well hold whatever classes they could. I do know when I tried to call the Physics Dept. at 10am, to confirm the e-mails I'd sent at 7am regarding putting up signs about canceling class and moving Exam 1 from Thursday to Friday, no one answered. Maybe someone just stepped out, but I suspect the dept. secretary might've wisely stayed home so the office was short-handed.
Anyway, we're both warm and toasty inside. Have not braved the below-zero wind chills outside. Oh, and the garbage will just have to sit in the can for a week -- I wasn't going to truck the can out to road and have the can and lid blown away where it can get run over again. (grin)
Later.
Dr. Phil
UPDATE at 3:45pm: Went out for mail and newspaper. Our road is east-west and though a bit icy is windswept (and COLD!). Our driveway is north-south and has some drifting -- but thankfully the stand of trees blocks some of the drifting while allowing some other snow to settle. Up to 6" in the trees, almost a foot on one side of the driveway by the "lawn".
It was sunny whilst I was out. Now the wind has whipped up again and it is dark and foreboding. (grin) Welcome to Mordor in January? (double-grin) Dr. Phil
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Re: oh, shut up!!!
Date: Thursday, 31 January 2008 05:20 (UTC)15 hours of heavy rain and strong winds are due to start about 2PM Thursday...HR & I played phone tag all afternoon today, don't know when the interview is yet. Sounds like the dept is trying to fast track me, now if I can just get out to the interview in one piece.
Oh, and one time about 20 years ago, I remember a storm that hit the Atlanta area and came up from the South. Ended up with over a foot of snow & ice. No one on the northside of town could understand why Clayton County was closing schools, government offices, the ROADS...the K-Mart district manager kept telling us to keep the store open. When the State Patrol announced the roads were closed in the county and most of dozen or so of us had to head south into the storm to get home, we looked at the one manager that was in the store and told him we were going home, he could keep the store open by himself if he wanted to. He told us we had 10 minutes to close it up. The only reason I got home was because I followed a police car that was heading to the jail, which was about a mile from my house.
Re: oh, shut up!!!
Date: Friday, 1 February 2008 03:56 (UTC)Dr. Phil