The Early January Blizzard of 2014

Siberia Visits

We had us a true blizzard with more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow having fallen. Once the snow stops falling, the bitter Siberia-like cold comes. Quoth the National Weather Service: "Frost bite and hypothermia will occur in a matter of minutes with these expected wind chills. Death will also occur if precautions are not taken." In other words, do not leave the house.

For this reason, Ball State University will be closed on Monday. This means I do not need to expend a vacation day. I could not get there, anyway, given the miserable condition of even the main roads and the Interstate. I could not even get my car out of the snow right now.

Back to Work

Okay, the Ball State campus itself is closed Tuesday, but according to the BSU Web site (and my boss' constant text messages), the campus offices will open at 11 a.m. That means I will have to go back to work.

I will have to leave at 10 a.m tomorrow to reach the campus over what will still be hazardous roads. At least I had the good sense to dig the car out of a foot of snow this morning.

Back to Work? Nope.

I was supposed to be at my cube at 11 a.m. today. But the governor of my state declared an emergency, forcing Ball State to stay closed. I had at first thought, before hearing about the emergency, that Ball State had to close because a good number of its workers live in counties surrounding Delaware County, and that all of them are under travel warnings, barring all but snow plows and ambulances and the like off the roads.

Although travel by road was not possible today, travel by foot is not, so I walked over to Madre's house. There I have dug out Madre from mounds of snow on her back sidewalk and front steps all the way to the street. The latter was necessary for the letter carriers to get to her door. I also installed a new smoke alarm upstairs and updated the license on the Kaspersky Antivirus on her computer.

I also wanted to buy some bread today, but the bread trucks could not get into town for the same reason I cannot get out. The bread shelves at Horner's, the local grocery, were bare. So I bought a steak to eat for lunch.

As of 2:00 p.m., Grant County (where I live) is under a travel watch, which means it is okay to drive to work. I will be doing that tomorrow.

Extra

A certain Web cartoonist and illustrator, who is currently teaching English to elementary students in Japan, has discovered a new horror in snack foods: Mountain Dew flavored corn snacks. She reports that they taste just like Mountain Dew. The closest thing to this that I can think of is Fruit Loops. And I do not even dare to eat something like that anymore. Argh!