Monday, November 27, 2006

Snow day!!!

... but not for us. Every private school in Vancouver? Closed. Every college? Closed. Universities? Closed. Nearly every surrounding school district? C-l-o-s-e-d. But us? Noooo... we stay open. Right. Thanks guys.

It actually wasn't too bad getting to work today, though I live quite close to my school, and it's all along major roads. The worst part of my commute was the fact that it took half an hour just to get into my car! The keyhole on my driver's side was frozen so much I couldn't get a key in it (even after shooting it - twice! - with WD-40. Hmm...), and the other side would unlock, but was frozen shut. I nearly ripped the handle out of the door, so I figured I'd better stop that. I thought about trying to go in through the trunk, but I need to unlock the folding seats from the inside of the car, first. Plus, as it turned out, my trunk was also frozen shut, and not even me planting my feet, tucking my arms under the dip for the licence plate, and heaving up with all my might was going to get that sucker open. Too bad, cause my ice scraper was in there. I used the handle of a squeegee and my mitten-clad knuckles to scrape the ice off my windows this morning. Ouch. Only after heading inside to pack my stuff into a backpack in preparation for taking the bus did I finally, on one last try, get my passenger door open. Sheesh.

The nice thing about school being open today is that there was hardly anybody there. We got a double recess today, and a bunch of my kids asked my why I didn't go out and play with them. So I did at lunch! It was so fun! :-) My kids and the other grade 5 class plopped down to watch the Sound of Music this afternoon (you can't exactly teach something new with only half the class there!). I now have Edelweiss running around in my head. There are worse things in life. Would you believe I've never seen that movie all the way through? (And I still haven't... we had to cut it short about half an hour before the end to send the kids home.)

There is talk of school closures tomorrow. It is STINKIN' cold out there. It's supposed to get down to -10 tonight, -20 with the windchill (that's about 15 and -5 degrees farenheit, respectively, for my American friends). Brrrr! See, the thing about snow in Vancouver is that it's wet and slushy. And then when it gets that cold, all the slush turns to ice. Not so much a good plan to drive on that.

Apparently we're breaking records all over the place for cold and snowfall amounts. This is the most snow we've gotten ever in November, and the coldest it's been in 20 years.

But the good news? Today they finally lifted the boil water advisory. Ha! You know who's had it the worst? All the people who have been without power, sometimes for days, first because of the rain, now because of all the ice and snow on the lines, AND they've had to boil their water. Thankfully I've not been one of those. (yet!)

Oh, and I WISH I had my camera at school today. Just as I was leaving, around 4:30 or so, the scene out my window was SOOO gorgeous. Unbelievable, really. The paned windows were all fogged up, settling in one corner like the scene so often printed on Christmas cards. Every pane had a perfect swoop of fog all in the same corner. As I'm on the top floor of the school, all I see out the window are the rooftops and trees, all covered in brilliant white snow. There are both evergreens and deciduous trees out the window, a perfect balance between those dark, wintery green needles and black tangled branches, all tempered with white. And to top it all off, the winds had blown much of the clouds away, and there were streaks of blue and streaks of cloud all lit up with the pinky orange of the setting sun. It was breathtaking. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Hmm... how much MORE can I ramble about the weather? Probably not much. Tomorrow is supposed to be super cold, but sunny. I SO hope there is no school tomorrow so I can go out and take some pictures!

11 comments:

Queen Bee said...

Sorry you had to go to work anyway, Hillary. Good thing though, you would have missed that gorgeous sight out of your classroom window. Any chance you paint so you could share it with us? Brrrr over here too, hoping that it warms up a bit more so it won't be so scary on the roads (says the woman who wouldn't drive anywhere today hehe).

Anonymous said...

Too bad you had to work but it sounds like you had a fun day.
It was -20ish here today. And we are getting snow for the next two days. Woohoo.

Ours isn't wet though. And our streets aren't icy.

Hope you get tomorrow off and get some pictures. I'd like to see something besides people sliding around in their cars in Vancouver, ha,ha..

Maybe you could make a snowperson..

Anonymous said...

Ah hah, you've never lived in real cold, I see! Hot water, possibly combined with a little oil will do the trick. Yes, it'll freeze again but it's a good way to get going asap.

Shle said...

oh hillary. It's beautiful here, hey? You know something funnny, It took me about a half an hour to get into my car as well, and I did the EXACT same thing as you! Couldnt get the key into the door on the drivers side, finally got it into the one one the passenger side, but the door was frozen shut, so i ended up almost breaking the handle off and it just took me a really long time, a lighter to heat my key up, and a whole lotta patience to get into that car..

BUt You know, the snow is so gorgeous here. I love it.

I walked to work at five this morning, it was soo pretty and quiet.. You know what dollarton looks like. Take that and drop a foot of snow on it.. Sooo pretty

!

Anonymous said...

My parents are both teachers, and I grew up learning how to pray for snow days. :-) My dad has a big "Snow Day Meter" on the front lawn, so he can look out the front window and see how many feet of snow fell... to better calculate if there would be school or not. :-)

Paul said...

It's +13 here today and will get down to +7 tonight.

We're rapidly heading for the hottest year on record.

nachtwache said...

It is beautiful out there! I don't drive, so my husband drives me to work in the evening (5 minutes away), and in the morning, I walk home,(longjohns, wool socks!). It feels like a real winter, reminds me of Switzerland. By the way, it's " Edelweiss" :) Keep warm.

Anonymous said...

sorry you had to go into work :( It is lovely outside (looked at from the inside, anyway).

and re: the water - I'm drinking extra glasses just because I can!

Hillary said...

Pelalusa - I have, actually, jsut haven't had to drive very much. Good tip!

Sarah - LOVE the snow day meter! I've gotta get me one of those!

NW - it's corrected! :)

Jenn - I know, me too! I chug-a-lugged 3/4 or a litre today at lunch all at once, it was glorious!

Anonymous said...

I hope my future kids have a teacher like you! You are too good!! I'm sure every parent there wants to give you a big hug...well, except Crazy Dad...but really, who cares about him. : )

Hope you have a SNOW DAY SOON!!!

Anonymous said...

Cap College wasn't closed, so we all showed up through fire and brimstone...well, snow and icestone...?? for a negotiation we were supposed to do Monday morning, and guess who doesn't show: the TEACHER...i coulda slept til one...