Morning Adventures in the Snow
If I ran the zoo, today would so totally have been a snow day. No school, everyone gets to stay home and build snowmen and drink hot chocolate. If I ran the zoo. But I don't. And there was school today.
The forecast called for some snow, maybe 1-3 inches. Not a big deal, right? We woke this morning to snow that still had tips of grass poking out of it. This happens often enough. We sent the boys off to seminary as usual.
The boys generally pick me up on their way from seminary to school between 6:55 and 7am. I went out around 6:55 to watch for them, and realized that the snow was coming down thick and fast. It wasn't until a few minutes after 7 that the van finally pulled up. As I hurried to get into the car, John hopped out with the snow brush to try to clear off the windshield. He said the wipers weren't working very well; they were just smearing. I suggested turning on the defroster to melt the ice that had accumulated on the wipers, and that helped a lot. I wondered how they had made it to seminary and back without being able to see through the front windshield!
We got to the end of our street, but when we turned onto the main street, there was traffic, seemingly at a stand still all the way up the hill towards the school. At my direction, John turned onto a side street to take the back way to the school. That street was wide with a more gentle slope, and there were hardly any cars on it, but even so, the car still slipped a bit and we got to hear the beeping the car makes when it loses traction. Finally we pulled up in front of the school. As John and Josh were climbing out of the car and collecting their things, the school bell rang. I hope on a day such as this they wouldn't be marked tardy.
I took the wheel and continued slowly on the way home. Nobody was driving fast. Some cars were stuck on the side of the road with wheels spinning, unable to move forward. Waiting in line at the light at the main street, I noticed cars sliding across the intersection. When our light turned green, a car that was turning right off the main street onto our street had taken the turn too fast and slid into the intersection, and spent a few minutes maneuvering the car so it could make the turn. Meanwhile, it blocked the intersection so no one in my line of cars was able to get through before the light turned red again. When I did finally reach the intersection, I didn't even try to turn... I just went straight and made my way through the neighborhood. Nowhere had been plowed, so one street was just as good as another - and there were fewer cars that way.
Eventually I did make it home and parked the car in the garage - I don't plan on going out again until I have to pick up the boys after school and rehearsal tonight. Hopefully it will have cleared up some by then. I got home and woke Peter - he had just enough time to shower and get ready for school before we needed to leave. Before we left, I took a yard stick to see how deep the snow on our front lawn was - and it was about 4 inches and still coming down heavily.
Peter and I set off through the snow to his school. I never drive Peter to school. It's only about half a mile from our home and the traffic before and after school - even on a normal day - is horrendous. I would only end up driving a couple blocks and then walking the rest of the way through the park, and on days like this when the streets are so slippery I would rather walk than drive anyway. Anyway, we trudged through the snow and Peter got to school just fine, and I turned around and made my way back. The sidewalks weren't too slippery - unlike the roads where the snow had been packed down by passing cars. I saw one car rolling backwards down the street - on the left side, so it was nose to nose with another car headed forward but moving in the same direction. Another car was pulled over and two men were talking about how one of them had gotten off the highway because it was like a skating rink, but the surface streets weren't any better because of all the hills. I had been hearing sirens in the distance most of the morning, and I saw an ambulance and another official looking truck parked on a nearby street with lights flashing. I imagine emergency people are keeping busy this morning.
So yeah. This California girl thinks today would have been a great day for a snow day. But Peter was telling me that the school superintendent is from Alaska, so maybe this is nothing to him.
The forecast called for some snow, maybe 1-3 inches. Not a big deal, right? We woke this morning to snow that still had tips of grass poking out of it. This happens often enough. We sent the boys off to seminary as usual.
The boys generally pick me up on their way from seminary to school between 6:55 and 7am. I went out around 6:55 to watch for them, and realized that the snow was coming down thick and fast. It wasn't until a few minutes after 7 that the van finally pulled up. As I hurried to get into the car, John hopped out with the snow brush to try to clear off the windshield. He said the wipers weren't working very well; they were just smearing. I suggested turning on the defroster to melt the ice that had accumulated on the wipers, and that helped a lot. I wondered how they had made it to seminary and back without being able to see through the front windshield!
We got to the end of our street, but when we turned onto the main street, there was traffic, seemingly at a stand still all the way up the hill towards the school. At my direction, John turned onto a side street to take the back way to the school. That street was wide with a more gentle slope, and there were hardly any cars on it, but even so, the car still slipped a bit and we got to hear the beeping the car makes when it loses traction. Finally we pulled up in front of the school. As John and Josh were climbing out of the car and collecting their things, the school bell rang. I hope on a day such as this they wouldn't be marked tardy.
I took the wheel and continued slowly on the way home. Nobody was driving fast. Some cars were stuck on the side of the road with wheels spinning, unable to move forward. Waiting in line at the light at the main street, I noticed cars sliding across the intersection. When our light turned green, a car that was turning right off the main street onto our street had taken the turn too fast and slid into the intersection, and spent a few minutes maneuvering the car so it could make the turn. Meanwhile, it blocked the intersection so no one in my line of cars was able to get through before the light turned red again. When I did finally reach the intersection, I didn't even try to turn... I just went straight and made my way through the neighborhood. Nowhere had been plowed, so one street was just as good as another - and there were fewer cars that way.
Eventually I did make it home and parked the car in the garage - I don't plan on going out again until I have to pick up the boys after school and rehearsal tonight. Hopefully it will have cleared up some by then. I got home and woke Peter - he had just enough time to shower and get ready for school before we needed to leave. Before we left, I took a yard stick to see how deep the snow on our front lawn was - and it was about 4 inches and still coming down heavily.
Peter and I set off through the snow to his school. I never drive Peter to school. It's only about half a mile from our home and the traffic before and after school - even on a normal day - is horrendous. I would only end up driving a couple blocks and then walking the rest of the way through the park, and on days like this when the streets are so slippery I would rather walk than drive anyway. Anyway, we trudged through the snow and Peter got to school just fine, and I turned around and made my way back. The sidewalks weren't too slippery - unlike the roads where the snow had been packed down by passing cars. I saw one car rolling backwards down the street - on the left side, so it was nose to nose with another car headed forward but moving in the same direction. Another car was pulled over and two men were talking about how one of them had gotten off the highway because it was like a skating rink, but the surface streets weren't any better because of all the hills. I had been hearing sirens in the distance most of the morning, and I saw an ambulance and another official looking truck parked on a nearby street with lights flashing. I imagine emergency people are keeping busy this morning.
So yeah. This California girl thinks today would have been a great day for a snow day. But Peter was telling me that the school superintendent is from Alaska, so maybe this is nothing to him.
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