The official count was 16 inches. We got 16 inches in one day. We had already had about 8-10, so there's a good two feet of snow now piled up in massive mounds all over town. It still boggles my mind that school didnt even delay or cancel. If that would have been back in Ohio and we had gotten that much snow on a Sunday. School on Monday would have been cancelled before Sunday was even over and school on Tuesday would have been cancelled too. And most likely delays for the rest of the week.
The new thing with the weather is that it's COLD! and WINDY! It's running about -10 to -20 ambient and about -40 to -50 with wind chill. The new thing is that everyone is wondering just how dang cold is has to get before we cancel school. We got a chart sent by email today that shows ambient vs. wind chill temps and were they draw the line for cancellation. I tried to figure a way to get it in the blog, but couldn't. But basically, it's a curved line and the line falls in the region where frostbite can occur within ten minutes. We're still on a wind chill advisory...for about the 5th day straight. The wind is fiercely cold and gets in to every bone in your body.In other news, we had to make a mask for the Yupik culture class that I'm taking. Here's a picture of mine. Mine turned out looking like an alien, which was not my intention. The pictures on the left side of the mask represent things from my life before Bethel and the pictures on the right represent things from my life after Bethel, with the pictures in the middle symbolizing things that would be parts of my life either place. I like it and I think it's kinda cool, but it doesnt look anything like the native masks that other people made. Here's the rub...how are we supposed to design a native mask before we've even learned what a native mask looks like?
Highlight of my week...I got some coffee and a coffee pot in the mail from Gevalia yesterday. Now, I dont really drink coffee very often. Back home I probably had it once every couple of weeks. I always liked to stop at a gas station and get mine with half regular coffee and half french vanilla cappachino (sp?). Here in Bethel, they dont really have that option available and while there are a couple places that you can get coffee here in town, none of them even serve regular coffee(let alone mixing it with half cappachino) and none of them even serve coffee that I would call "good". So, even though it's not something I drink very often, I do like the option of being able to have a cup when I want one. I've had a couple cups and I can say that it's good. I certainly wont take up the habit of drinking coffee everyday, but it's good to know I can have a cup if I want one. (kinda similiar to the way I feel about alcohol since i've been here in Bethel...you cant stop and pick up something to drink when you want it, so you have to just keep in on hand)
Sunlight...The sun is rising before 10am now. We're gaining 5minutes and 22seconds now. within 20 days, the sun will be up before the start of school. I have to admit...one of the advantages to having these really cold days is that there is not a cloud in the sky. The sun shines beautifully!
Avery....is back to wrestling, is going to boy scouts meetings, and has joined the academic pentathlon team at school. He is doing spectacularly at school academically, but is getting in more trouble than he has in the past. The trouble he gets into is nothing major...it's mostly just piddly stuff like cutting in line and goofing off in class. This is partly due to puberty, partly due to adjusting to a new place, and partly due to being at a disfunctional school. Frankly, I am so dissatisfied with everything about his school that I could just pull my hair out at times. If he had to go to that school again next year...we would NOT be staying here, but, thankfully, he'll be at the high school next year for the 7th grade. He just got rewarded for having perfect attendance for the first semester. He hasnt missed a day of school all year and he's pretty proud of himself for that. He has a birthday party to go to this weekend, which is great because I will get a night to myself, which I havent had for MONTHS. He is definitely taking longer than I had imagined to integrate himself into our new home, but I think maybe it's starting to happen. He's hanging out at the HS basketball games on the weekends with his friends, but is bugging me alot to let him go snow machining with his friends and I just dont think he's ready for that yet. This has been an area of discord between us. Kids here are raised in these harsh conditions and know (at least better than Avery) what they're doing. Avery doesnt yet even understand the concept of frostbite or hypothermia. Kids here are also given ALOT of freedom to make their own mistakes and roam free. Avery is not ready for that, nor I am ready to give it. At least, not all at once. The boyscouts are planning a winter camping trip soon, so hopefully that will cure his adventurous spirit for awhile. AND my neighbor just bought two new snow machines, so we're hoping that he will take us out sometime. I dont mind Avery riding a snow machine...just not with a bunch of other 12 year olds and no adults around. He has actually already driven my other neighbors machine and did great.
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1 comment:
That's a lot of frickin snow. It'd be cool though. OMG we haven't had a normal day at school all week. We've had 2 hour delays everyday and canceled once this week. We've tried twice to have sophomore day and had to cancel, so now we're hoping to have it on Monday which is the same day as Open House. If we had all your snow, we wouldn't be going to school for a week or more. Here I was hoping you were going to say that you were just going to move back since you didn't want Avery in the same school. Just kidding, I know you can't yet. Maybe in a year, right?
Lisa
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