ICE
It is cold — very very cold.
The snow from a couple days ago wasn’t much, but was quickly compacted, then frozen-melted-refrozen.
I just got off the phone with the county, trying to get them to sand an intersection on the main road we must use to get out. For the last two days it has been treacherous, and for about a mile there is a solid sheet of ice. No sanding has been done there, and to get to the place the bus drops the kids off the bus must travel over this section, stop at the little store, make a turn (all on this ice) and then return the other way. Meantime, parents need to drive, make a turn onto the main road and again at the store (all on this ice).
I am hoping that my mentioning how the bus needs to maneuver helped nudge the person I was talking to…Â but she sounded really tired.
I know they are doing their best, trying to get the most traveled, MOST hazardous sections sanded or de-iced…Â but over 100 families live in our little corner, many of them with children who are riding the bus!
Not to kvetch too much, but it does seem that school could have continued on Wednesday when there was just a little snow…Â and canceled today when the driving is actually dangerous!
And I fear for some of my plants. It got down well into the teens (Fahrenheit) last night. It was already back up to about -7 C when we woke up this morning. If it stays below freezing and doesn’t do much freeze-thaw-freeze it will be better than if things warm up and then get cold again. As it is, some plants will be nipped back just a little — the witch hazel, for example, so pretty last week now has dried-out blooms — others won’t make it at all. I suspect the hanging plant on the arbor at the corner of the house is lost. Hope the dahlias are deep enough to make it (didn’t dig them in November because it was so wet), hope the fruit trees weren’t starting to bud.
Still, we’ll keep an optimistic view… plants that don’t make it can be replaced! I sense a major shopping expedition in my future. Quickly snagging all the plant catalogs that arrived in the last month…