Snow days

Friday was a snow day.  Monday is going to be a snow day.  In Montana it takes a lot of snow to make one snow day, much less two.  It seems the city has spent the overtime street cleaning budget for the year already so the plows are only working in the daytime.  We are supposed to get 4 to 8 more inches tonight.  The main streets are drivable but the residential streets are getting a bit impassable.  Two-wheel drive cars are restricted to main streets only, if they can get there.

I have caught up with my grading, I have reviewed my lecture notes, I have canceled my University test Friday and then Monday (the course is mostly on-line so no biggie there), so I may have to go snowboarding tomorrow.  That is if I can get there.  Four-wheel drive with studded snow tires, I am good unless it gets real ugly.  It was real ugly this weekend, ten below and windy on the hill.  Not my cup of tea.  I do fresh power and trees, not stupid cold.  It is supposed to be warmer tomorrow, in the 20’s.  Heat wave.  It is supposed to be rain/snow mix starting Wednesday.  Now that is going to make the city real interesting.

I know a number of teachers will be in full panic mode.  They seem to have every day scheduled exactly and if they lose one they have no flexibility in their schedule.  I am at least one week ahead in my really fuzzy schedule so I am golden.  I have never been good at building a daily schedule for classes.  I like to keep things flexible so I can pick up on tangents that interest the students.  This worked great when I was teaching math.  If they were interested in anything we were off on that trail.  In the programming class it is not needed so much.  I leave lots of room in that class.  Some days are just pure work days.  Our classes are an hour and a half long and I cannot lecture that long if I wanted to.  Anybody that lectures that long needs a sock stuffed in their mouth after an hour or so.  Nobody is that good, especially with high school kids (although we have some teachers that try).  The fact I have never taught this class sort of restricts the ability to make a concrete schedule any way.

The news says it is raining on the highway to the ski area.  That means really bad ice.  The ski area is 100 miles away and is usually less than a two hour drive.  Maybe I won’t be snowboarding tomorrow.