ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Before you read this you've got to remember -- I was born and raised in Washington State on the West side of the mountains where it hardly ever snows. Sure we might get snow once or twice during the winter, but when we did it only stayed around for a couple of days and everything shut down and got cancelled. Actually - everything practically got shut down and cancelled even if there was just a forecast for snow.

So, here I am for the first time in my life living somewhere where it snows all winter long. We had our first snow about 2 weeks ago (and it's still on the ground) and things have been rather cold ever since. Now I know it's just going to keep getting colder, but when Cameron arrived home from school with a "School Emergency Closings" bulletin all I could think was, "are you kidding me?"!

Here's what it said:
Snow - Generally speaking, snow is not a primary reason for closing school (OK, I can understand that). As long as roads are not drifting shut, it's possible we would have school even with a sizable snowfall (e.g., greater than six inches). (WHAT??? I can not understand that -- they want me to drive with 6 inches of snow on the ground??? Yikes!!!)

It went on to say:
Cold - Please remember that we do live in central Illinois so below 0 degree weather is not uncommon. In most situations, if air temperature is 0 degrees to -10 degrees with a little or moderate wind chill, we will likely have school. Air temperature of -20 degrees or below (regardless of wind chill) will probably cause us to cancel school (Whew - finally good news!). If temperatures are between -11 degrees to -19 degrees and depending on wind chill, road conditions, and other current weather conditions, we may or may not have school. (Are they serious??? They want me to go out when it's -19 degrees???)

I think it's going to be a long winter.......right now the Seattle rain and grey skies are sounding really, really GOOD to me!!!!