School is closed/open until further notice!

woke up to the sound of cars trying to drive down the street early this a.m.
there had been an ice storm and everything was frozen.
through my bleary eyes and sleep fogged brain i made an executive (!) decision right then and there at 6.45 a.m., after hearing on the radio that school buses were not going out, that neither was clippy mat.
who needs an edu-macation that badly?
so i called my co-worker and we agreed, 'no school.'
we both live in different towns to our work location so this seemed the most sensible thing to do under the circumstances.
i'm sure you agree.
from my home phone i changed our outgoing voice mail to tell would-be enquirers that classes were cancelled today due to the weather.
so, back to bed.
but then,
i tossed around.
and about.
so,
got up about 1/2 hr later, looked out of the window only to see that traffic was now moving.
dammit!
what to do?
i had already emailed our boss to say we weren't coming in.
but if i don't go and the school board is keeping their schools open then i don't get paid.
so i phoned my co-worker again.
she was back in bed.
"what if people turn up anyway?" she asked.
"well," i explained, "i have left a message on the machine telling them school's cancelled due to the weather. so anyone in their right mind....."
wait a minute.
??
"anyone in their right mind....."
??
better go to work then.

so another executive decsion.
school WAS closed.
now it's open.
20 mins to clean ice from car before leaving driveway.
again, why buy a house without a garage?
who does that?

phoned boss, left her a message.
(so she knows to pay us).
go to work.
on the highway see a car being extricated from the ditch and avert my eyes.
thank goodness that m.o.h. bought expensive snow tires for this little car, bless his heart.
arrive at work.
two students leaning over our upstairs balcony looking down into the mall below, postulating on whether teachers are coming in.
"i can't see them." says one to the other
they have been there for 1 and 1/2 hours.
(neither of them will be going on to graduate school after our program needless to say.)
'how did you get here?' i asked.
'my dad dropped me off on his way to work' says one.
'does he drive a snow plow?' i enquire. waste of good sarcasm.
'no, he's a crossing guard' she tells me.
there's a surprise...

at some point would it have dawned on them that no-one was coming?
but, no, because, just as they had expected, there I was.
'didn't you think to phone first before you fought your way thru ice and snow?" i ask.
blank stares.

just then at the door arrives a nice little man with a clipboard.
our health and safety rep, who unfailingly turns up once a month to inspect our little centre.
he is the most conscientious man who takes his job very seriously.
no doubt he'd braved hail, sleet, snow and ice to come and visit us.
he was bearing gifts.
a huge, blue plastic apron, a pair of protective goggles and a bottle of cleaning fluid.
apparently if someone should throw up one of us has to don the protective gear, after first evacuating the area, then sprinkle the said cleaner on the offending puke until it crystallizes. at which juncture we should scoop it up.
!!
and,
i just realized he didn't include a scoop!
surely that's a violation of some code?
i might have to take a health and safety meeting with my co-worker to discuss our course of action on this one.

so i get to the phone to change the message to reflect our new status, as in, we are now open.
7 messages.
#1 "hello? hello?" to someone in the background. "they're not there."
#2. "is school open? it's icy here. i can't walk."
#3 "there are no school buses so should i come to school?"
(n.b. our students are adults and therefore use public transport, or shanks' pony, but NEVER a school bus.)
etc etc.
NOBODY, BUT NOBODY had listened to the message.
i banged my head against the health and safety board several times until things were clear again.

so, our two students are working on their computer skills and my co-worker and i are doing valuable things on the computers too.
i'm blogging and she's watching the biggest loser online.

what?
at least we came in didn't we?
that's the thanks we get.