Ahem. Anyway.
The university, before I got up this afternoon, issued a statement that all campuses would reopen tomorrow and classes would go on as scheduled:
Grounds crews are making significant headway in clearing roads, parking lots and sidewalks of snow. As a result, the university will reopen for all normal classes and activities tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 6.
This is, of course, highly interesting to me that they'd make such a statement so early. No, we're not supposed to get any more snow (nothing accumulating, anyway), but at 3PM today the temperature is 8 degrees and feels like -7, and some roads in the area are just now closing down because they've become drifted over due to the winds and the higher than expected amount of snow predicted. The low temperature tonight is going to be zero, if not below zero in many places, which means that it will still be that cold in the morning when the university is expected to reopen and classes are expected to resume -- and that's even before one takes into account the wind chill and the aforementioned drifting over the roads in the more open areas (such as, ahem, the two several-mile long straight stretches through wide-open fields that I have to take in order to get to West campus in the morning). The school districts for Wichita and Maize (where West campus is) already closed down for tomorrow again, mainly due to the cold and due to the fact that there's so much snow, even with treating/plowing the roads, none of it's melting and there's nowhere for it to go.
The official accumulation count for Wichita was 8.7 inches, which was more or less on track with the later predictions. As you may recall, the earlier predictions called for 4-6 or 5-7 for Wichita before upping it to 6-10. Newton, where I am, was in the 6-10 range, and again, I'm still guessing I got close to a foot up here. This is a graphic KWCH-12 put out this morning:
I don't practice Assaria, I ain't got no crystal ball...
Ahem.
Hutch, as they refer to it, is Hutchinson -- where the state fair is held every year, and is about 30-40 miles-ish directly west of me. Salina is an hour or so north of me. Those totals line up pretty much with what I'm seeing here in Newton -- several inches more than what Wichita got. This isn't really that surprising, based on the history of how storms track in this area most of the time; very rarely will Newton get less than Wichita, and usually gets several inches more, even though at maximum (from center of town to center of town) they're maybe 26-28 miles apart. My drive from my driveway to the new parking lot on main campus is almost exactly 24 miles, because I've clocked it.
Because of the statement that the university plans to reopen tomorrow, I sent an email to my 102 students I'm scheduled to teach in the morning:
Greetings, folks. Hopefully you've stayed indoors, warm, and off the roads as much as possible for the past 48 hours or so. As you may have seen if you've looked at [website], [University] has already made the statement that they will reopen tomorrow, even though many public school districts (including Wichita and Maize) have remained closed. I doubt this will change if they've already made the statement that they'll be open, regardless of how brutally cold it gets and how many snowdrifts form over roads. So. As of right now, as long as the university reopens on schedule, I do plan to hold our class tomorrow. If you cannot make it to class tomorrow due to the roads and/or cold, let me know and I will plan accordingly. I myself will be taking plenty of extra time to make it down there, especially as I don't know what the road conditions are between here and there (and it's not like any of this stuff is going to melt or get better when it's this cold), so I encourage you to do the same. If any of this changes between now and the morning, I'll make alternate lesson plans, update you here, and we'll go from there -- but if not, expect class will be held as scheduled.
That's about all I can tell them, really. Do I think the university will change its collective mind and close down again? No, and I said as much in the previous post I wrote here in the overnight hours. But, do I think of the thirteen of us scheduled to be in class tomorrow (twelve students and myself), half of them or more may still be unable to make it in? Yes, I think that's a distinct possibility, and that's why I told them to let me know if they couldn't make it in. As much as I don't want to (and I really don't want to, as it will entail a lot of extra shuffling around of the schedule in the short term), if I get a bunch of them telling me that they can't make it before I leave the house tomorrow morning, I'll just cancel the class.
Neighbors' cars and other vehicles seem to be able to get in and out of my neighborhood just fine, even though the street is snow-covered and snow-packed. People are going back and forth to work, coming and going as per the usual in cars similar to mine (for example, my neighbor across the street has a low-to-the-ground Impala with aftermarket rims, and seems to be able to get in and out normally). Mind you, I myself haven't left the house since Sunday night, before all of this snow came, so I really don't know what the road conditions are anywhere, and my car has been kept out of the snow and ice in the garage. Unless everything outside my neighborhood is clear, I would imagine it's not going to be a fun trip back and forth tomorrow morning, and I'll have to take plenty of extra time to get down there and back. I guess I'll see for myself when the morning rolls around.
As for my paycheck stuff, this afternoon I sent an email to the administrator in the department asking if there was someone in particular in the payroll department that I could contact for a "status update" on the processing of my check, since as far as I know it's been radio silence from those people for well over a week now. I said that I didn't want to be a bother and I know all of it's frustrating (and, of course, I do mean that) but regardless of what's taking them so long, I still haven't been paid and would like to be before the next payday of the 14th rolls around. Yeah, the university's been closed for the past two days, but they had my information, forms and the like for a week before that with nothing in response. When it's the third week of classes (going into the fourth, for me, after tomorrow), and I haven't been paid since December 20, and by the end of this week I will have had to borrow money not once but twice from my fiancee to cover even the barest of necessities and bills -- yeah, something has to be done here. This is, as they say, a major fuck-up that needs to be rectified.
As the sun goes down, it's getting colder both outside and inside. I have the thermostat on the furnace set to 56, because (again) if I set it higher than that, with this cold, it will run 24/7 and my electric bill will be $400 this month. Because of the cold and the snow, I haven't showered since Monday, though I will soon shower this evening. I haven't before now because, well, why waste the water making myself clean and presentable if I'm not going anywhere and there's no one here to impress? Plus, showering involves getting naked and cold, and I've been bundled up tightly for days in my thickest plush bathrobe. If the cold and snow would go away and I had somewhere to be, as well as people to see and interact with, it would be a different story, obviously.
As the evening begins, many school districts, colleges, and other small universities are closing down again for tomorrow, and the list on local news websites is, pardon the pun, snowballing, and is getting ever larger. All of the small colleges and technical schools, with few exceptions, are already closed for tomorrow, and all of the school districts in the area have either shut down already or more than likely will, with the larger ones (like the Wichita USD) closing down before I even got up this afternoon. As I mentioned before, the university usually follows suit when the Wichita USD shuts down, especially when all or almost all of the school districts within the tri-county area shut down for the day as well. The closings are coming in every 2-3 minutes by the bucketload; I'm watching them pour in via Facebook and Twitter. For some reason this is extremely fascinating to me, especially because I know this time around it's mostly due to the cold, and not the leftover snow/road conditions. I'm guessing 75/25 due to the cold; maybe, in certain places or situations, 60/40. Regardless, I'll keep a close eye on things over the course of the next few hours. If the university changes its mind, it will be stunning at this point, but again, not especially super-surprising given everywhere else closing down. I'm sure there's some sort of peer-pressure at play when the university closes, as well as the inconvenience factor of staying open when all other school districts and the like are closed (many instructors, professors, students, and staff have school-age children all around the area, of course, so when everyone closes but us, people flip the fuck out and thousands of complaints roll in; that's baaaad PR).
Again, it doesn't really affect me one way or the other; if the university remains open and I don't have ten emails from students telling me they can't make it in, I go teach, and I'm gone and back, out of the house about three hours total. If it closes or all of my students tell me they can't make it in, I remain here and put further class contingency plans into action. They have to make a decision by 4:30 AM, as I mentioned here before, even if that decision is to do something weird like cancel morning classes and open at 12PM. I wouldn't be surprised if they do shut down, but wait until the last possible minute to do so -- such as the middle of the night when wind chills will be, according to the Weather Channel, something like -20 to -30. If not? Enjoy walking to or between classes tomorrow, kids!
So, that's been my day in a nutshell. I'll go shower soon and get something to eat, and will keep an eye on things, but I fully expect to be off to campus in the morning in the bitter cold and snow for the first time in a full week. My 102 class last Thursday was the last class I was able to teach at the university before all of this snow happened, ironically. I'll keep you updated on whatever happens.
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