Spring semester: day twenty-nine
I drove back to Newton after my class yesterday, stopped at Walmart to get my necessary groceries (read: not a whole lot, but some stuff I needed) and told Daisy I was home safely before eating a quick lunch and going back to bed...around 1:30 or so. At the latest. While my workshop sessions with my students took almost the whole class period, I also didn't waste any time getting off campus and back up here, and the shopping trip was a relatively quick one. I was tired. I didn't want to waste any time -- in, out, get home, eat, go to bed.
When I awoke around 7PM or so (roughly; I don't exactly remember the time except that it was almost completely dark outside by then) I had this picture message from Daisy waiting for me:
Ah, so they finally made a prediction.
And, of course, I was immediately glad that I'd done my grocery shopping on my way home from class.
Winter Storm Titan, as they are calling it, is shaping up to be a big one. I've read several forecasts at this point, and all of them are saying at least 3-6 inches of snow, but all of them are also advising that the forecast can and probably will be adjusted/changed between now and Saturday night when this shit is supposed to start.
Again, I'll remind you that I don't have anything to do or anywhere to be this weekend -- I plan to do my taxes today or tomorrow, and I plan to sleep, make minor lesson plans, and play Pokemon X over the rest of the weekend. That's it, really. There's nothing else on my schedule.
When I mentioned the possibility of snow to the West campus administrator yesterday morning, she shrugged and said, with a smirk, "Hey, I wouldn't mind the university closing down on Monday. I'd be happy to sleep in again."
The university has been quite a bit more cautious in the past two or three years when it comes to weather. When I first started there as a grad student in 2010, five or six inches of snow wouldn't close the school. There was a major ice storm in spring 2011 that hit in the midday hours in the middle of the week, and despite hundreds of accidents all around the campus and town, all they did was cancel evening classes that day...despite the fact that the roads were basically impassible and about 1/3 of the city didn't have power. Since then, however, we've had two different university presidents and numerous administration changes in the offices of the higher-ups, and they tend to take weather threats more seriously, apparently -- in spring 2012, there was a two-foot snowstorm (roughly, anyway) that closed down the university for the better part of a week, a year ago this week we had a storm of about fifteen inches or so that did the same, and then earlier this month we had the storm (Nika) that shut us down for two days. So, yes, it does happen -- there's a precedent for it.
The bad part about this storm, however, is all about timing. At least for me, anyway. No, it doesn't affect any weekend plans I have, and it won't affect me in the least if the university shuts down on Monday (I don't teach on Mondays), but...if it lingers longer than Sunday night, when it's apparently supposed to stop, and if it screws up Tuesday and/or they can't clean the roads off enough for me to get to my classes and back on Tuesday, my class schedule for most of March gets thrown into mass hysteria. As I mentioned here before, I don't have anything to do this weekend because all of my students' next papers/assignments come in next week. I then cover some topics in my classes that will lead them into starting their next assignments over Spring Break, which is important -- I can't rush into those things, and I also can't not assign their next papers/assignments before the break. The second half of the semester hinges on me getting their papers on time next week, grading them and giving them back, and then covering the next assignment as I send them off into the break so that they have time to work on it, as for two of my three classes that next assignment is a biiiiiig one. Missing any absolutely unnecessary days -- whether it be with the university closing down or because I can't physically get to/from campus in the arctic tundra Kansas turns into when it snows -- would be disastrous to my overall lesson plans for the rest of the semester, and I'd basically have to rewrite a huge chunk of them for at least two of my three classes just to be able to fit everything in.
This is not, obviously, something I want to do. I don't think it's something I'll have to do either, but the way they're waffling back and forth trying to track this storm even 36 hours or so before it hits has me a bit worried about my return to teaching on Tuesday, especially if this storm goes into the late hours of Sunday night and into Monday morning (as they're currently saying is possible).
I did not put the car in the garage yesterday afternoon upon my return home, though that was more me being absentminded and just forgetting to do so more than anything else. It turns out I didn't need to, at least not for the overnight hours (I'm writing this at 2AM); they'd originally predicted that we'd be getting sleet and in the overnight hours, and well, it's 37 degrees outside and there's nothing on the radar aside from very light showers anywhere within 200 miles of me. This goes to show you how quickly those forecasts can change and/or become inaccurate, which is why when a big storm comes in -- like Titan -- I pay damned close attention if it may affect me in any way. I'll put the car in the garage during the day today sometime, more than likely.
Obviously, once the forecasts change, of course, I will be updating you with what I find out -- as I tend to do that (and, again, have little else going on this weekend).
While shopping yesterday, I purchased supplies to make jerky this weekend in the dehydrator, as I've been wanting some (and because I have a little more money to work with right now, for the moment). I'll start that in the morning, after I clean the kitchen, so that I can have something to snack on over the course of the next several days. I've done some cooking, I've done some cleaning, and I've even washed the bedsheets and blankets. I'll have to do my normal household chores, of course, regardless of whether it snows or not. On the plus side, it'll keep me busy over a weekend I'd normally be grading and/or running errands back and forth. My electric bill did come in the mail yesterday, and it's (as expected) quite high again -- $212. I'll pay it in a couple of days once my paycheck clears just so I can be rid of it and not have it hanging over my head. Hopefully, after this storm rolls through, we'll be done with this cold and snow shit and spring can finally arrive -- and with it, the ability to turn off the furnace and drop my electric bill by about $130 or so for next month.
My sinus infection seems to be clearing up and going away, though my normal allergies persist as per the usual. They'll probably (expectedly) ramp up as this storm system rolls in, as they tend to knock me flat when this sort of thing happens. That's another reason I'm glad I have a relatively free weekend.
For now, though? All I can do is wait and see what the updated forecasts say 12-18 hours from now. Maybe it'll turn out to be nothing. Maybe it'll be worse. Regardless, I'm going back to bed and won't be worrying about it while I'm sleeping with the kitties and the electric blanket.
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