Snow day slacker

It snowed two inches last night, so, naturally, we don't have school today.  Usually I welcome these days to get caught up on my grading or get a jump-start on lesson planning.  Not today.

I attended an event with a student last night, so I intentionally left a stack of papers and my flashdrive at school.  I knew I wouldn't get to it last night.  So what to do now?  A snow day with no work?

1.  Take Barley to the dog park and tackle him in the snow.  Try to throw a snowball to him (usually he tries to catch it), only to have it hit him in the face.  Poor baby.

2.  Shovel our steps.  Then our sidewalk.  Then the rest of the sidewalk on our side of the street.  Subsequently talk myself out of going to the gym.

3.  Get caught up on my reading, especially my wonderful Christmas present.

4.  Consider cleaning the house, but convince myself it's "really not that bad."

5.  Write about how little I've done today so I feel just the teeniest bit productive.

You should see the other guy

Maryland received a fair amount of ice last night, so our entire neighborhood was pretty slick this morning.  I tried to warn Barley of that before he went outside this morning, but chasing squirrels was just way too tempting.  He shot out of the back door like he always does, slipped on the deck, regained his footing, tried to sprint down the stairs, and ended up going arse over teakettle the rest of the way down.  The last thing I saw was a white fuzzy bum spinning into the snow.  He stood up, saw a few stars, then remembered the pesky squirrels and resumed angry barking.

It wasn't until a few hours later that I noticed the gash over his right eye.  It's much smaller now, but it's still a good sized cut.

He let me clean it and stop the bleeding, but the whole experience was still taxing on him.  Trauma is exhausting, even for brave puppy dogs.

"We got cabin fever..."

After what seems like days stuck in the house, I've run out of things to clean, I feel like I've read everything (though it's only been two or three books), and I've had this earwig of a song running through my head:



It's no wonder that we can't go anywhere. Our region just isn't equipped to remove this kind of snow (of course, as I say this, Matt is out driving to "test the roads"). These are some images from the most recent blizzard, which added a foot or so to the snow piles that were already on the ground:


Perhaps because we're eternal optimists (or, perhaps because, like all native Minnesotans, we're more than a little masochistic), Matt and I are still taking time to enjoy the winter wonderland.

We could grumble about how much taxpayer money is being lost while the federal government is in a state of emergency (not taking into account the energy being saved and the telecommuters who are still working...but I digress), but we're perfectly content to make the most of these days off. We also know that fewer Marylanders on the road is never a bad thing.

A Blizzard in Pictures: before, during and after

Snowstorms in Maryland always make Matt and me laugh. We've realized that we're snow snobs, and we love watching the ridiculous ways our adopted homeland prepares for and deals with snow. This most recent blizzard was no exception.

Before...

All local stores were cleared out of milk, butter, eggs (the clerk was using a dustbuster on the empty shelves)...
...and bread:
This was a good 24 hours before the first snowflake appeared. We like to watch Marylanders freak out when the stores are out of dairy products and bread. They get angry at the stores and their fellow shoppers (including those jerks from Minnesota in the next aisle, laughing at them).

During...

While the snow falls, we feel like we're back in Minnesota. The muffled silence of a new snowfall reminds me of sitting in my front yard in my snowsuit.

Strange as it may seem, Matt and I really miss the snow. I bought this snowflake for our kitchen window when we first moved here to remind me of winters at home. I haven't needed it much this year.

We've had a great time playing in this most recent snow. We did some modified sledding and buried each other in the snow in our parking lot. I buried Matt up to his neck while a plow was driving by (nowhere near his head; safety first). "You might not want to stay there," the driver said. "Oh, really?" Matt asked. It's hard to be a sarcastic snow snob when just your head is sticking out of a 30-inch pile of snow.

Matt also built a snow fort for Barley. Right, Matt. "For Barley."

Barley was not nearly as excited by the snow as we were (and he was terrified of the fort). When over two feet of snow falls all over your bathroom, life is not easy.

Fortunately for us, Barley is always cute, even when wrestling with the elements:



After...

Once the snow has fallen, we get a you're-not-in-the-Midwest-anymore reality shock. I've often said that Maryland employs the "wait until it melts" method of snow removal. It's cute at first (and it's an added bonus when one Minnesota snow day becomes a week off of school), but it gets old in a hurry when roads are left unpaved and mammoth snow piles fill half the parking lots.

Our own neighborhood has been only partially cleaned. Snowplows don't clean back roads here like they do in the Great White North. The mayor of Baltimore even urged residents to clean their own roads with their shovels and snowblowers. The result is an extremely bumpy (not to mention hazardous) ride home:


As I write this, another winter storm is headed our way. Poor Maryland. I love you, but you're no Minnesota.

Busses and Lunches

Growing up, I remember my parents saying that school schedules revolved around "busses and lunches." Every time one or the other would disrupt an otherwise-normal school day, one of them would say with a harumph, "Busses and Lunches." I always thought they were ridiculous.

Once again, I've been proven wrong. There's a massive snowstorm headed for Baltimore tomorrow. It's supposed to roll in around the middle of the day, dropping a foot or more. I've heard that our school system may close preemptively. Why close schools before a flake even appears? Why not wait until the snow comes? Naturally, "busses and lunches."

Apparently, once students are in the building, we're legally obligated to provide them lunch. Our last lunch shift doesn't end until 45 minutes before the end of the day. It's easier to close schools for an entire day than worry about how to feed (or not feed) 1800 people. Lunches.

And if you want to close a high school early, you have to wait until the busses can return from picking up and depositing all the elementary school children. In a school system as large as ours, there may not be time to coordinate all the pick-ups and drop-offs before the snow really gets heavy. Busses.

As of this posting, school is on as scheduled. Stay tuned.

Update: As of 5:00 Friday morning, schools are closing two hours early. Let's see how well they turn this huge cruise ship around!

Snowtopia

The Baltimore area was hit with a blizzard this weekend. For those of us from a naturally snowy climate, it was like a small taste of home. In fact, I think there may even be more snow on the ground in Maryland than in Minnesota.

The entire area shut down for the entire weekend, and we were out of school today. Here's just a glimpse of what our neighborhood looks like (we haven't ventured much farther than that):


And, of course, a video of Barley trying to run/hop through the snow:

Snow puppy

The weather has been sunny and warm in Baltimore in recent days, but just last week, we had our third snow day. Beautiful, snowy scenes like these make me long for the winters of the Midwest.




These types of days also provide a perfect opportunity for some gratuitous video of Barley running in the snow, one of my very favorite sights: