Safely back home

Yeah, I had 11 of 24 students in class today. As I said, my policy is "If it's not safe for you to drive, don't, I won't mark you absent." Do people abuse the policy? Probably. But I'd rather have 10 students sleep in and claim bad weather than one person get into a wreck trying to get to campus.

More people made it for lab - I think I counted 19? I know a couple people got stuck behind a bad accident (couldn't cross a bridge) earlier but obviously it cleared because they were present.

I made it home safely. The roads are OK, but lots of trees are bending low:





Those are just the ones in my yard, that I've kept more or less trimmed up. I saw several broken ones (at least one was a Bradford pear, which is a crummy tree with weak wood, but still) on the way home. I'm more worried about the power lines and am hoping we don't lose power....but if we do, we will be OK. I have a battery powered lantern and I can get into bed under a bunch of blankets (and depending on what the news says when it comes on, I *might* heat up my buckwheat bags - while I still have power - and stick them in the bed to pre-warm it). If I lose power, I stay in bed and read as long as my lantern holds out. Added: I have a second set of batteries, and it's an LED lantern, so the batteries last a long time, so I should be OK.  (For extended emergencies, I have a "chamber lantern" that will burn olive oil, but I'd rather just use the battery powered one because no flame is safer)

So, I don't know. Our sister school shut down at noon, but I guess they're getting it worse than we are? And a bunch of school districts to the west of us have already declared they won't open tomorrow. We'll see. (Again, I would not be averse to a day off....though a day off with no power and no heat might not be as fun....I could probably hole up in bed with my book and my knitting, but I'd rather the power stayed on).

So...yeah. I think I'm gonna do my Duolingo, and wash my hair, and maybe make dinner (am thinking bean burgers again) early, frontload all the things I might want electricity for, just in case it goes out later when it gets even colder or we get wind....

Also, apparently my birthday presents from my parents arrived (I already know what they are; they are what I asked for) and the mail person made the trek up to put them between the door and the screen door, so that's good. (Then again: they were too big for the mailbox. Sometimes the "little" Amazon boxes wind up crammed in the mailbox and I can't quite get them out without a fight or without just cutting the box while it's still in the mailbox)

I hope this moves out soon. I need to figure out when I can get my prescription (I didn't do it again today, didn't fancy driving around any more than I had to; I said a rather unladylike word when I looked at some of the power lines near campus and realized how low they were dipping and how laden with ice they were, and I was imagining what would happen if one snapped).

So anyway. Depending on conditions my evening might be holed up in bed with Pfred and Meowth and all the other various stuffies and reading by lantern light....