Snow Day in the Life of a Teacher

So what to write about? Here are some “interesting” things from today:

-The exciting news of today? I got a snow day. With less than ½ inch of snow on the ground. I know, right? I guess I’d call it a “cold day”. It hovered around 0 degrees Fahrenheit today, give or take 5 degrees. But there was a constant nasty wind all day. Right now (8:35 pm) it’s currently -11 outside, and with windchill it’s -37. And how is my car supposed to start in the morning??

-The superintendent from our district resigned yesterday. I think this is the 3rd, 4th, or 5th one they’ve gone through in the recent past (meaning the past 5 years). We’re a very “special” district. I feel rather guilty that when I heard the rumors about this yesterday afternoon, my first thought was a panicked, “Wait, who’s gonna call our snow day tomorrow?!”

-After my gross 2 hour run on the treadmill today, all I wanted was a shower. I turned on the shower and was scalded by the burning water coming out of the facet. I tried to turn it down…and down…and down, but it never got colder. I turned it all the way down to COLD--and nothing came out. I realized the cold water pipe in my shower was frozen. Awesome. I knew I needed to call the office so they could do whatever they needed to to keep the pipe from bursting. But I really, really wanted to bathe first.

So I rocked it pioneer style. Well, opposite pioneer style. I filled up the bathtub from the facet (scalding hot water, remember?) while filling up a mixing bowl with cold water from the sink and dumping it into the bathtub. A little oldschool, but it worked great.

Later, the first maintenance guy came. He took the fixture around the facet off so the warm air could get in there and defrost the pipe. He turned on the cold full-blast so when it melted the water could get moving. So far so good, right?

About 4 hours later, the 2nd maintenance guy came with a spaceheater. He set it up in my bathtub and turned it on high, pointed right at the facet, to try to melt the frozen pipe. I sat there and started smiling, trying not to laugh. He said, “When it finally melts, you’ll hear the water pouring out, and then you can just let us know and we’ll come fix everything back up.” I just smile and nod.

Remember, the space heater is sitting in my bathtub, plugged in, running. And water is supposed to come gushing out of the facet at any time. He finally realizes what I’d already realized and said, “And—oh—um—I should get something to put this on…”

So I have a spaceheater sitting in my bathtub on a 9X13 baking pan. Real safe. I feel really good about this.

And looks like no brownies for Lori tonight.