I came home Saturday night. The kids and B left the cottage Friday afternoon, leaving Ivy and I to our own devices. I wanted to stay for one more day, to enjoy the peacefulness of the cottage and do a bit of grading a prep work for the coming week. In reality, I never want to leave the cottage. It is an incredibly relaxing place to be, I’ve always felt that way and I can understand how Grandma Weaver feels when she is there. There is nothing like waking up and sipping coffee looking out onto the lake and just thinking. However, there is a time and place for everything, as I was reminded by my own ‘A season for everything’ post from 2013. Indeed, there is a time and place for everything and Winter Break does come to an end, eventually.
Saturday’s drive home from the cottage was snowy. I made good time to Grand Rapids, just less than three hours even in the light snow. I saw a few cars had slid off the road as the snowfall became stronger. I stopped in outside Grand Rapids to refuel and to take Ivy for a walk. As I was walking back to the car I ran into a lake friend, Tom and his two boys, they had stopped on their way to a ski hill north of Grand Rapids. It was a surprise, for both of us. He warned me of the traffic on the south side of town and I was on my way. The remainder of the drive was – cautious. The snowfall and traffic got thicker and thicker the closer I got to home. The only glitch in the drive home was when Ivy let me know she had to go and I had to find a place to safely pull off the road so she could do her business. She was persistent in her yelping and she did not understand me when I told her we had a couple of miles before I could stop. Once I did, I thought she would never go. Once she did, I put her back in the car and she didn’t make another sound until we pulled into the driveway and she saw B, W, and O. You could tell she was happy to be home.
It snowed the rest of Saturday night and into Sunday morning and afternoon. Then the cold set in. Bone-chilling cold. The kind of cold, which me makes wonder how people survived before well-constructed housing and central heat were able to keep the elements out and the heat in. It wasn’t just the cold, which set in, it was the winds, and they certainly did blow. Sunday morning the temperature was in the twenties then, it dropped into the teens, and then single digits. By nightfall, the temperature had crept below zero and it stayed there. The temperature is currently zero. It should warm up a bit more before the sunsets but the winds have gone and it doesn’t feel as cold as it did Monday. The Weather Channel called the storm Ion. I called it trouble, because it was too cold to be outside for any reasonable length of time. At noon Sunday, we got the call, schools cancelled classes for Monday and the winter holiday continued. Again, around noon on Monday, Tuesday’s classes were called off. Another day of winter break. It also, meant summer break would be two days shorter, as snow or bad weather days are added to the end of the school calendar. Last year we had three weather days – one for snow and the other two for the late April flooding. Thank you Ion.
For now, the winds are gone and I think the kids are hoping for another day to be called, but I don’t think it will happen. The winds have died down and the wind chill is not as bad as it was yesterday, it only feels like -18F.
The only casualty of the cold weather was my car battery and two days of teaching and learning. And, of course, B’s sanity. She can’t wait for school to resume so all of us can return to school and she can get her house back.
In the meantime, winter break lasts one more day. So, I had better jump up, jump in, and seize the day, before it is gone. Today is gonna be a great day. Making the days Count, especially when I have one more day to put off things I SHOULD have already done.
How is the weather in your world? Are you freezing, are you warm, or are you just right?
Ion = John – in Romanian… any connection?… 🙂
the names were selected by a high school Latin class in conjunction with the Weather Channel … I suppose there is a connection to John – Ian-Ion, John, Ivan… maybe some relation but according to the article Ion is Latin for going..and John has Biblical roots… but Ion was a nasty bugger, I think we are onto Kronos or Leon…
This is likely to be irritating to you. It’s + 12.5C most days and pretty balmy. We’d actually rather like a pretty convincing cold snap. But I can feel all you Americans quite rightly hating me already. Smug European, I hear you all say, because I know many of you are having rough times. I hope it’ll pass soon.
Not at all. It is the smug Floridians or Californians who post status updates to their Facebook accounts announcing they are having a fire to keep warm and it is in the fifties (F) or upper teens (C) that drive me crazy. But, after all it is a short drive, to crazy that is….yesterday it warmed up and we broke into the above freezing range… right now it is about +1C or +2C, but it didn’t keep everything from freezing. It was slippery and slidey on the way home last night. It made our driveway a veritable ice rink. So, I stayed in last night, as best as I could, and watched a movie. It’s the middle of January – we’ll come out of it.
I’d love a European vacation right now especially to the south of France.
🙂 I live in the South-West of France and we have mild winters, no snow and rarely below zero temperature… Toulouse is the European capital of space and aviation(Airbus city!), situated 2h-drive from the Mediterranean sea, the French-Spanish Pyrénées and Bordeaux(cheers!)… and 3h-drive from Barcelona, Spain, olé! 🙂 c u soon, then?! 🙂
sounds like a lovely place to visit, or even better live and explore…. but that could be said for just about any where – it’s all in how you look at it! Have a great day….
We missed two days because we got hit with snow on January 2 and 3. Then we had a 2-hour delay the following Monday.
As much as I enjoy the snow days (great excuse to spend the day reading, playing a board game, or watching a movie after playing in the snow), I hate them come summertime. Last year we had to make up 5 snow days! That was a whole week of extra school. Our summer felt so darn short having lost out on that week. A real bummer. I’m kinda hoping we’ve seen the last of our snow days this school year so that we can get as much summer as possible!
As a teacher it’s a double whammy – by the end of the year our job is finished and (most) of the students are ready to move on to the next level. The last thing thing anyone wants is EXTRA days….. Sort of like the old expression comparing house guests and fish – after xx days everything smells! Last year it wrapped around a weekend and the three days we had to make up included a weekend. Oh we’ll, I sound like a whiner…… I plan to make all of the days count – every last one of them. Take care and have a wonderful Friday and great weekend.
The winter weather this year has been nutty. I thought it was bad here in NYC when it hit 5 with a wind chill of -14 the last few days, but where you are it’s much worse. Try to stay warm out there!
Thanks – I didn’t want to get out from under the covers this morning! It is -8, but it feels like -8. Not bad. The trouble is that the roads are a mess – salt doesn’t work when it gets this cold and it’s still very icy. I would have died (frozen to death) in pioneer times. Have a great day.
Hi Clay. Twice now, I’ve left a comment on this blog, but when I pop back to see your response, I don’t see me. So this is really just a test. Am I going to spam? Do I need to be moderated?
Hmmmm.
Are you seeing me somewhere else in your blog land?
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
No spam – just ran out of time – no worries! I have settings for first time needs moderation after that it shows up… Have a great day!
Well, this is going to sound weird, because I’m going to complain about how warm it’s been here in my neck of the woods – Northern California. We had a freaky storm like that, really, really cold, the first week of December that lasted about a week. Then it blew your way and left us with freakishly warm weather. We’re breaking records here in the Sacramento area – nearly 70 degrees.
It’s scary for those of us who live higher up in the mountains because if we don’t get some moisture soon, we’re going to have severe drought this summer and if there’s even so much as a lit match, we’re going to burn up in a blaze of glory. Wildfires are so scary, especially when we have no snow pack to create a water reserve.
Anyway, enough about my worries. I’m glad you made it home safely and I hope your routine gets back to normal very soon.
Stay warm and pray for rain in California.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
Patricia – thanks for stopping by…. It’s all relative. I lived out in the Bay Area from 1987 to 1990… It was a great time. I remember when it got cold – it was odd and I recall the summers being amazing – hot, but pleasant. We are already at our normal for snow with 3 months left in the season. Yikes!
I saw on the weather page this morning that they are predicting another cold spell in late Jan/early Feb. I hope you folks get some rain – fire season in N Calif. is no fun.
Today was my first day back at school and and two days of catching up to do. … Never enough time between 6:30 and 5:00 – have a great day.
Stay warm! It’s times like these that I’m glad to no longer be living in IL. Although we’ve been hit with a cold snap, too, it’s definitely much milder than what you guys have.
It’s a school day and it is -9 outside right now and feels like -9, which is very cold. I am transplanted Texan, but have lived here as long as did in Texas, so I am half-breed, if you know what I mean. Growing up cold was in the 40s, now I just look forward to 40 degrees! Have a great day and stay warm where you are.
That’s some nasty and dangerous weather. Hope it warms for all of us soon!
It’s funny – but it feels colder today than it did yesterday. Several schools have posted that school will be in session tomorrow, so it looks like I’ll be heading out in sub-zero weather. I am just glad I don’t have bus duty!