First Winter

The past few weeks here in Indy have been pretty chilly and white. I enjoyed the amount of snow that we got, even if it made it a little tricky getting to work on a few mornings. It's worth it to get a view like this

Yaktrax. Nerdy, or Genius?

A while back, I saw someone that had these springs on the bottom of their shoes when walking through the snow. I thought to myself that they were clever, but does anyone really need that product? The answer is YES!

In December, I bought a pair of Yaktrax at Dick's Sporting Goods.  I wore them once for the heck of it when it had snowed a bit.  They seemed fine, but nothing to rave about, but I have kept them in my car ever since.  Then, on Tuesday, I walked out to my car after school to grab my phone charger when the snow started to pick up and I heard someone scream out. I turned, and someone had slipped on the pavement and fell all. the. way. down.  I was careful the rest of the way to my car.  My feet slid a bit, but I didn't bite the dust.  Since I would have to make that trek two more times, I decided to pull on my Yaktrax just to be safe. I had zero problems walking back in.  I even tested out jogging across the parking lot and still felt proper friction to keep me from sliding.

I'd say that $20 is worth staying upright in this weather!

Not as Bad as the Blizzard of '78

That's always the response when discussing the snow storm we received this past week.  I wasn't around for it--to be more accurate, I hadn't even been thought of at that point in time--but when the blizzard of '78 occurred, I've been told that my mom, my granddad, and my mom's childhood friend were in charge of getting the groceries to hold them off through the storm.  My grandmother was furious when they returned home with donuts, bags of chips, cookies, candy bars, and not a single healthy item to eat.  

As I mentioned in my previous post, we received a snow day following my return from the cruise.  Since that time, my school received the remainder of the week off as well. Actually, just the students received the rest of the week off.  We, teachers, had to report to school on Thursday and Friday since students would not be making up the first two snow days.  It was relaxing to make lessons without interruption and during school hours rather than before and after school for hours, as per usual (I'm now 5 weeks planned ahead! Go, me!). 

Dottie Grace, my dog (yes, animals should have middle names, too), has been stir crazy during this weather.  It was way too cold to go for a walk on Monday or Tuesday.  Here's a quick video of her trekking through the backyard trying to spend just a few extra minutes outside, but falling through the snow with every step.  She is a clever girl, which is how I know she was walking to her tree to spend time out rather than just not thinking it through. She kept looking at me and then continued her journey to the tree.

On Wednesday, we did manage to go for a walk.  I put her sweater on her--I do not dress her often, but it was still extremely cold out--and we took a lap around the neighborhood, and boy, was she happy to be out!

In the Knick of Time

What a wonderful vacation! We docked on Saturday morning after visiting the Bahamas, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas. The weather was beautiful and the ship was amazing-- truly a Dream. I had a goal for myself to not buy a huge amount of souvenirs on this trip, and I stuck to it. I bought a spoon (I'm a collector) and a t-shirt from when we went snorkeling, totaling to $25 spent beyond the expense of the trip itself. Go, me!

We made it back in great time--14.5 hours, including rest stops. During the drive, we fired up the satellite radio to listen to the Colts vs. Chiefs game. WOW! What a finish! Second biggest comeback in playoff history.

As we headed north, everyone was calling about the terrible snow storm on its way. Lucky for us, we managed to get home before any snow fell. I slept in today until 10 AM (which is pretty late for me) and I have been thinking about all the things I want to get done after getting home from vacation--laundry, cleaning, organizing. I looked at the clock a bit later and realized how much of the day was already gone and that I wouldn't be able to finish it before going to work tomorrow. As I was sitting in my disappointment, an "unknown" call rang in on my phone. When I answered, it was a message from the superintendent informing me that we have a SNOW DAY tomorrow! This is good and bad; you can see some of my thoughts on snow days in a previous post here. 

The mature thing to do, knowing that there is a snow day tomorrow, would be to get even more things checked off my list. However, I am contemplating going sledding. Every time it snows, I ask my students if they went sledding. Maybe this time it will be me saying yes to that question.

I may have to flip a coin to make this decision. In the meantime, I'll prepare for a possible power outage during a storm likely to produce -40°F