Please allow me to interject my feelings about Mother Nature

Fifteen minutes from Tahoe, dammit.

And it’s gorgeous.

 

Been living in this situation since last Thursday/Friday.

8 inches of wet snow, followed almost immediately by sub zero temps. Few side roads properly cleared and any salt applied is ineffective in those temps.

Craters upon craters in icy stretches, leaving my shocks hurting. I don't think I've used my brakes since last Thursday.

 

I suggested to my wife, the teacher, that snow days were unnecessary because virtual learning was already set up and a thing now.
I was told to mind my own $%^&ing business.

 

My wife is also a teacher.
I essentially told her the same thing.
Not only did she tell me to mind my own fucking business, but to get the walk shoveled, start her car, and pick up the groceries on my way home tonight.
I told myself before I told her anything "Self......this is not going to end well for you."

 

The best meteorologist in our area is predicting wind chill of -11 for Monday. We are used to the heat index. But wind chill is a foreign concept.

 

You can have all the virtual school you want - until the power lines snap.

 

An unpleasant winter story with a happy ending. Our house has forced hot water heating and our furnace-boiler setup, less than five years old, began acting weird last week, shutting itself down once or twice a day. We were told it was the igniter when the HVAC guy came. He showed us how to reset it. A few more days were fine, then it began failing again. Then it began failing every two hours. HVAC guys came with manufacturer's rep. They worked for five hours, said they'd be back with a new part in a couple days. Right after they left, furnace began failing every 15 minutes. This morning the HVAC guys came with a brand new control setup and installed it. What's more, manufacturer put the whole thing under warranty!!! Gosh it's great to be able to take my boots off indoors and put the fisherman's sweater back in the drawer.

 

We'll get a round of freezing rain overnight tonight and hopefully the roads will dry out, but then the bottom drops out over the weekend. It won't get out of the teens from Saturday night until sometime Tuesday, with a low of a whopping 1º on Monday night.

 

I'll be perfectly honest, at this point, snow days or virtual learning days would't be any different for me.
Hell, for that matter, regular school days aren't a whole lot different. I put in the work between the first shutdown in March and Christmas, so now, my classes pretty much run themselves.
I actually told my principal today that if I dropped dead this very minute, they really wouldn't have to hire anyone to replace me the rest of the year.

 

Headed north yesterday to spend a week visiting my father-in-law. We left a day early on purpose to avoid today's weather.

Stopped outside Chattanooga at a rest area in shirt sleeves: 62 degrees.
In Nashville, it was 55.
45 miles later at the Kentucky border, it was 45 degrees.
By Paducah, it was 35, late afternoon.
Arrived in south/central Illinois to a crisp 16 degrees.
Shoveled snow for probably the 2nd or 3rd time in 25 years today.

That may well be as good as it gets over the next week. Definitely will get to experience a few below zero temp mornings over the next few days.

 

Ice is going to be a serious issue from Texas all the way through Kentucky over the next few days. Already had a 100-vehicle pileup in Fort Worth this morning. Watching them hauling away the debris live right now, it looks almost like the aftermath of a Busch race at Talladega, if somebody crashed a few haulers in there as well. Hopefully we'll be just in a cold rain pattern here.

 

I've heard of Busch races in Talladega, and I've heard of bush races in Talladega.
The latter is way way WAY more interesting and entertaining than the former.
That's a helluva town come race week.
Or so I've been told.