Beautiful Morning

Oh what a beautiful morning! Ice sparkling off all the branches, coating cars, and slicking up the road so that I could have two extra hours at home. One of my favorite things about being a teacher is that when the roads are scary, I don't have to drive on them. So, I wasn't surprised that last night I got the call saying there would be a two hour delay. Yipee! The school day would count, but it would be shorter and I could lol around in bed. Even removing the thick sheet of ice from my car wasn't bad as the temperature hovered around a balmy 31 degrees. Now, one of my quirks is that on days like this I like to hear the radio or TV announcer declare the delay or cancellation over the air. So, as I wended my way to school I listened to the local station.

Huh? Did I hear that correctly? As I came within half a mile of the school, the radio announced my school district had canceled school for the day. I must be hearing things! The roads are clear. I was disconcerted by the number of broken and bent trees (some with their crowns on the ground) along the roadside, but traveling was fine. I called home. If school was canceled there would be a message on my machine. It took less than a minute. No message. So, I pulled in to the parking lot to be stopped by not one but two teachers who were leaving. It was true, school had been canceled. At least they knew why. You see, my building has no power. Those bent and broken trees? Downed lines.

Upon arriving home I was startled to hear the phone ring. I thought to myself, it must be the phone chain catching up with me to say there is no school. Nope. Turns out the teacher I share a classroom with had run in to get some work out of our room and found it full of SMOKE! No, there was no fire, just smoke. Stinky smoke. Yuck! If there hadn't been a power outage, it turns out, school would likely have been canceled anyway. Our ancient boiler system must have heard that the district was preparing to send it to the boiler old age home and decided to go out with a bang. Literally. No heat = no school. Maybe tomorrow?