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would you like cheese with that?
Nov. 28th, 2006 09:56 amIt is really cold here in Western Washington today. An arctic blast is going to dry things out for a couple days, but as a result, it will not get above freezing till Thursday (when it snows again...)
Last night, before it started snowing, we got a half inch of ice pellets, then very un-northwesty powdery snow on top of that. This morning, there was lots of ice.
It is all very pretty even if it does take some patience and care to drive in.
(just a side note, I noticed on my first trip to the East coast that most of our winter and Christmas imagery comes from the Eastern part of the the US. Landscapes that I had always assumed were generic winter scenes actually exist on the east coast. Very few greeting cards or Christmas illustrations feature plants and landscapes that are familiar to those of us in the Northwest; something I had never realized until I saw in person the landscapes those very non-northwest winter scenes are based on. Anyway, the snow I brushed off my truck this morning was "winter village" snow. I had always thought the packaged snow they sell to go with winter villages was kind of fake looking. No, as it turns out, it is just based on a type of powdery snow we don't get here often — though to be fare, I am not sure how well fake clumpy-wet snow would sell...)
The point of this post though is that I am sitting at school wondering if any students will show up...
School is supposed to start a couple hours late. I came in at my regular time since the temperature is not supposed to get higher so waiting would not mean the roads were any clearer and I figured I would rather come in at my regular time and drive slow and careful without an Escalade that wants to go 70 right behind me.
Many of the students on the other hand have woken up to realize that they don't want to drive in the ice, and that they have used up all their allowed absences. The phone has been ringing off the hook with students wanting to know if an exception can be made just for them. The school has a pretty generous absence policy, they can miss three sessions from each class (out of 15)without penalty and after that they fail the class. They are warned over and over to save those absences for actual sickness, and in the fall and winter semesters, for bad weather. They skip class anyway. Having a hangover is not on the list of things you can get an absence waived for. Now a lot of students who don't have any absences left are faced with either getting to school on a solid sheet of ice, or failing a class. I want to feel bad for them, and I really want them to stay safe, but at the same time it is so their own fault. It is a shame that lessons in personal responsibility are always so painful.
Of course, it will be the "A" students, who all have near perfect attendance, who show up even though they could have stayed home.
Last night, before it started snowing, we got a half inch of ice pellets, then very un-northwesty powdery snow on top of that. This morning, there was lots of ice.
It is all very pretty even if it does take some patience and care to drive in.
(just a side note, I noticed on my first trip to the East coast that most of our winter and Christmas imagery comes from the Eastern part of the the US. Landscapes that I had always assumed were generic winter scenes actually exist on the east coast. Very few greeting cards or Christmas illustrations feature plants and landscapes that are familiar to those of us in the Northwest; something I had never realized until I saw in person the landscapes those very non-northwest winter scenes are based on. Anyway, the snow I brushed off my truck this morning was "winter village" snow. I had always thought the packaged snow they sell to go with winter villages was kind of fake looking. No, as it turns out, it is just based on a type of powdery snow we don't get here often — though to be fare, I am not sure how well fake clumpy-wet snow would sell...)
The point of this post though is that I am sitting at school wondering if any students will show up...
School is supposed to start a couple hours late. I came in at my regular time since the temperature is not supposed to get higher so waiting would not mean the roads were any clearer and I figured I would rather come in at my regular time and drive slow and careful without an Escalade that wants to go 70 right behind me.
Many of the students on the other hand have woken up to realize that they don't want to drive in the ice, and that they have used up all their allowed absences. The phone has been ringing off the hook with students wanting to know if an exception can be made just for them. The school has a pretty generous absence policy, they can miss three sessions from each class (out of 15)without penalty and after that they fail the class. They are warned over and over to save those absences for actual sickness, and in the fall and winter semesters, for bad weather. They skip class anyway. Having a hangover is not on the list of things you can get an absence waived for. Now a lot of students who don't have any absences left are faced with either getting to school on a solid sheet of ice, or failing a class. I want to feel bad for them, and I really want them to stay safe, but at the same time it is so their own fault. It is a shame that lessons in personal responsibility are always so painful.
Of course, it will be the "A" students, who all have near perfect attendance, who show up even though they could have stayed home.
