Ice Day in Knoxville

Yesterday was supposed to be the last day of my long weekend February Break, but, as we were all anticipating, the Octavia and Neptune winter storms passed through, and Knoxville was covered in several inches of snow and ice this morning.  So, we teachers and staff have an extra day off from school, because today was scheduled as our in-service day... to catch up on grading, paying bills, cleaning our apartments/homes, but MOST IMPORTANT of all, snuggle with our own babies before taking care of our high school kiddos Wednesday.  The students had today off anyway, and it looks like we'll be set to start school tomorrow if the weather forecast stays the same.  It'll still be icy and very cold (10-15 degrees F, which is COLD for down here in mid-February), but the snow plows will have time to clean up the roads without any extra precipitation tonight, even if the temperature does not rise much today to melt the ice.  I know that the amount of snow and ice and cold is nothing compared to what Boston got, or even back at "home" in Wisconsin and Indiana, but Tennessee just doesn't put as much money into the plows and salt to prepare for a storm like this because it's so unusual!

The parking lots of our apartment complex were still full of cars at 8:00 AM when I took Hank outside for a walk.  Just about all schools were called off, including the University of Tennessee, and it looked nearly impossible for even other non-academic people to drive out of our apartment complex to get to work.  David and I heard the snowplow driving around late last night outside of our apartment at 10:00.  It was the first time that we had seen a plow here in five years, so this was obviously a really bad ice storm.  Even with what the plow cleaned up last night, it still looks icy and difficult to drive on the hilly driveway to leave our apartment tomorrow for work!

David was off of work today at the golf course anyway today.  Sunday, he got sent home early because a pipe burst open at the golf course, and when he went to check it out after getting a call from the head greenskeeper, he quickly discovered that the bursting pipe was spewing out sewage water... yuck!  He came home that afternoon to immediately shower and change clothes before beginning our hibernation with the girls and Hank from this nasty weather.  So, we've been cuddling up in our cozy apartment for the last few days.  Naturally, Reagan asked me if we could take some #snowdayselfie photos as long as she was awake and playing this morning, before I finish checking off things on my To Do list to get ready for school tomorrow!