Snowmageddons and Ice-pocalypses

Arkansans are no strangers to crazy weather. It can be a balmy 70 degrees one morning and by nightfall, below freezing. We have wild storms and extreme heat waves, recently resulting in major flooding and horrific drought conditions all in the same month. Needless to say, ALL of those conditions adversely affected my garden for 2013. It was sad. That is not the topic of this post, however. Since Thanksgiving, we have already accumulated 4.5 inclement weather days in my school district. That is usually a high number of 'snow' days for our area. It's only the first week of January. I foresee several more coming.

The first round of 'snowmageddon' was three days after our Thanksgiving break, on December 5, 6, and 9. It was more of a slushmageddon around here, but alas, it was enough to keep us home. A long, long time.

See the Cardinal in the tree? I love the splashes of red!

Sled parking.

  

  

This was on Tuesday morning on my way to work; it was what was leftover from the five days of winter weather.

My area was lucky and dodged a bullet over the weekend. Another round of the cold, white, fluffy stuff hit the northern half of the state, stopping just two counties away from us. There are several school districts that now have to make up nine or more days already. And they definitely will get more. Our luck stopped yesterday though. I was gathering papers from my students and happened to glance out the window and was shocked when I saw huge flakes falling. Within 5 minutes, it had dusted the concrete outside the doors.

The local schools (in the upper half of the state) waited a bit late to let students go. Several schools announced that buses would not be able to run and students would be welcome to stay overnight if parents could not come to get them. I think I would have been traumatized. Our school waited too late to close, and our resource officers and local police drove the stranded students home. I had to leave prior to the dismissal, because I live thirty minutes away on a clear day. The resource officer advised me to stay at school, but I wasn't about to do that and risk not being at home with my family. Good thing I left, since school was cancelled for today! I had to drive 20 mph or less the entire way and saw three rollover accidents (one truck was lodged in the treetops), two less severe accidents, and one two-car accident that tore the front ends off of both vehicles (near head-on). I think they didn't drive as slow as me. Thank the Lord my angels were driving and guiding me and my tires didn't slip or slide at all the entire HOUR AND A HALF and nine bridges that it took me to drive the 30 miles to get home. Today, I was a little less rattled than I was yesterday, but was bound and determined to stay home. After the little twenty minute dusting yesterday, everything that fell was ICE. Boo.

 

  

Meteorologists report that we only had .05" of ice. This is what it looks like. That little bit sure caused a lot of trouble!

Chris tried to go to work this morning and just got to the top of the drive before he started to slide...stopped just that short (2 feet) of the bricked mailbox. He got stuck and came back inside. It was after 3 before he was able to leave to check the rest of the neighborhood.

Three schools around us have already cancelled classes for tomorrow. I think we will be going. At this point it is a waiting game. Waiting on the call/not call...and the next round of snowmageddon or ice-pocalypse.