The Sounds of Squeaky Snow

This weekend, I was pretty much homebound due to the cold (see previous post.) However, I decided to get out yesterday for a couple hours to go to Ann Arbor for dinner at the Cottage Inn with my parents. This is the original Cottage in on Washington in downtown A2 and the pizza is better than the chain that popped up later. But anyways, after dinner Bruce and I stopped at Borders and then went to Starbucks. Despite being bundled up in our coats, hats and gloves it was bitter cold. I had wished that I would have remembered to wear long underwear. However as we were freezing our butts off I heard that sound... the sound of squeaking snow. The sound that snow only makes when it gets down below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Last night the ole' mercury was hovering at about 2. I love the sound of squeaking snow, don't get me wrong I am not a big fan of the temperature that makes it, but for some reason the sound always makes me smile.

Another thing that makes me smile is the telephone ringing at 5:30 am, because when you are a teacher that can only mean one thing. That thing is the fan out list saying that there is no school. I am at the top of the list, so I am one of the first to be called by my boss. This is the second time this year, and I was just as surprised as the first time. See for my school to be closed we have to have all 9 schools that report close. Usually we can count on 8 of them closing, but there used to be always one hold out Algonac. For some reason it seemed that every district in the state would be closed but Algonac would remain open. However there seems to be a new tide over there, because this is the second time this school year that they have called school. So I am sure you are wondering why we had school called: squeaky snow. Yes it's not because there was too much snow it is because it was too cold. The temperature with the wind chill was -20 degrees Fahrenheit, which is much too cold for kids to be outside waiting for the school bus.

I remember a week of high school being closed when I was a kid because Ben Morgan waited for the bus without a hat and got frostbite, I am pretty sure he had to have some of his ear removed, or maybe I am making that up in my mind because it sounds better, but anyhow, it closed school until the temperatures got more reasonable. So we were all thanking Ben Morgan for not wearing his hat.

So what am I doing today, well I am actually resting, I still am not feeling 100% better from this nasty cold. So I am trying to drink tons of orange juice rest and hopefully feel better for tomorrow. I need to kick this cold because there are only 12 more days until G. Love & Special Sauce come to Detroit!