snow... if you can even call it that

Winter in Western Washington is truly predictable - even if you aren't a weather forecaster. Rain. Rain. More rain. And, on occassion, a little snow. (See picture at left for the definition of little.) As you see, that's exactly what we woke up to this morning. A LITTLE snow... if you can even call it that.

On went the TV. No reports of closures or delays in our school district. Surfed through all the closure/delay lists on-line. Nope. None reported in our school district.

So, I called the school. No answer. And do you think in this day of modern technology such as VOICEMAIL there might possibly have been a recorded outgoing message about whether or not there was school today? NO. OF COURSE NOT! That would be too simple!!!

But wait... there's more.

Do you remember my previous posts about the school's Emergency Phone Tree which I am the lead on? The one we are supposed to USE in case of an emergency or OTHER late breaking, IMPORTANT information that needs to be passed on to every family at the school. Yeah, that one. Was it used this morning? Umm... lemme think. That would be a big fat NO bird coming in for a landing. (Thanks for that extremely appropriate phrase Stacie!)

Now, an hour and a half after waking up and monitoring the news, I bundle my kid up like he's going out in a snowstorm and we pile into the car. And before even leaving the driveway I ask him to "please be quiet and not ask me to look at this and that and whatever he deems important for me to see at the exact moment" because the roads are probably going to be icy and I need to pay attention to the stupid people who don't know how to drive in this weather. We back out. Heading to school. Sliding around like a drunken penquin on the black ice that WAS NOT covered by any of the handful of snowflakes that had fallen to earth.

Then we get to the main road. And the traffic (heading the opposite direction) is backed up and not moving. Apparently a snowflake landed on someone's windshield and obscured their vision leaving them impaired for driving. I make a mental note to myself. Self (I say!). Do not drive home from school in your usual direction. And while I'm trying to plan my route back to the house WJ is suffering from a severe case of diarrhea of the mouth and yelling "Look at that Mom! Did you see it? That was cool!!" Umm... NO! I did NOT see whatever it was you're yelling about since I am trying to make sure that I don't ram into the back of this forking SUV that is driving slower than molasses. Sheesh!

Finally, after our trecherous 10 minute drive, we arrive at school. And the damn thing is locked up tighter than Fort Knox! Just forking great.

But wait. There's more. Oh yes there is!

Arriving back home I check to see if by any chance the school had called to start the phone tree. Of course not. But one of the other mom's who's part of the tree had called wondering if we were going to actually USE the phone tree. "Yeah! Notsomuch" I tell her. So again I go back to monitoring the news and checking the closure/delay lists on websites. And FINALLY, more than two and a half hours after starting this whole process and being forced to register as a member at one of the news websites just so I can read the closure/delay list, I see it.

Holy Family
Delayed start: 2 hrs

In theory, it didn't really have to be this difficult.