![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Winter Arrived ... All at Once
Jan. 15th, 2024 09:11 am Last week was exams, and there was the usual begging to turn in assignments that were due weeks ago and asking if there was extra credit. ("Only if you have an IEP" and "no" are my answers, respectively.)
But we were all keeping an eye on the weather.
A big storm was heading our way, one that was engulfing the entire country. We've had a LOT of storms this winter in the USA, but they always somehow skirted Metro Detroit. Chicago, Buffalo, the entire east coast got socked with several bouts of awful weather, but Detroit just hummed and buffed its nails. It was the second week of January, and we still hadn't seen any snow, and temperatures were often in the 40s.
This storm, Detroit's first, was supposed to arrive some time on Friday, the last day of exams. For the first time ever, my students were hoping we WOULDN'T have a snow day. I agreed. A snow day would mean the exams would be tipped over onto the Tuesday after we got back from a three-day weekend, and no one wanted the specter of a set of exams hanging over them.
But at last it became clear that the storm wouldn't hit until late Friday afternoon or early evening. No need to cancel school. As a precaution, I ordered groceries (we had little food in the house) and Darwin picked them up Friday morning.
I gave the last exam, graded everything, packed up my stuff, and fled. Darwin was already home. Not long after I arrived, the snow started, slow and heavy. It picked up steam, stopped, started up again, rushed into blizzard level. Later, the temperature rose and it switched to a rain that created a crisp coating on the snow, then went back to snow again. We watched from inside, glad we didn't have to outside.
The snow abruptly stopped Saturday morning. Then the deep freeze set in. Temperatures dropped and the wind climbed. Bone-cracking don't-go-out cold. This morning, the wind chill was -20F. If it hadn't been a holiday, we probably wouldn't have had school.
So today we're mewed up in the house. I'm making chicken pie and banana bread and not going anwyhere!
But we were all keeping an eye on the weather.
A big storm was heading our way, one that was engulfing the entire country. We've had a LOT of storms this winter in the USA, but they always somehow skirted Metro Detroit. Chicago, Buffalo, the entire east coast got socked with several bouts of awful weather, but Detroit just hummed and buffed its nails. It was the second week of January, and we still hadn't seen any snow, and temperatures were often in the 40s.
This storm, Detroit's first, was supposed to arrive some time on Friday, the last day of exams. For the first time ever, my students were hoping we WOULDN'T have a snow day. I agreed. A snow day would mean the exams would be tipped over onto the Tuesday after we got back from a three-day weekend, and no one wanted the specter of a set of exams hanging over them.
But at last it became clear that the storm wouldn't hit until late Friday afternoon or early evening. No need to cancel school. As a precaution, I ordered groceries (we had little food in the house) and Darwin picked them up Friday morning.
I gave the last exam, graded everything, packed up my stuff, and fled. Darwin was already home. Not long after I arrived, the snow started, slow and heavy. It picked up steam, stopped, started up again, rushed into blizzard level. Later, the temperature rose and it switched to a rain that created a crisp coating on the snow, then went back to snow again. We watched from inside, glad we didn't have to outside.
The snow abruptly stopped Saturday morning. Then the deep freeze set in. Temperatures dropped and the wind climbed. Bone-cracking don't-go-out cold. This morning, the wind chill was -20F. If it hadn't been a holiday, we probably wouldn't have had school.
So today we're mewed up in the house. I'm making chicken pie and banana bread and not going anwyhere!
