Then as Monday rolled in, I heard something about a blizzard...
This morning, my work threw together a delicious Thanksgiving breakfast! While munching on wholesome breakfast goodness, my friend Mariana popped into conversation after staring at her phone.
"Hey! My friend just told me that the university is going to close at 2:00!"
Then everyone discussed the awfulness of the snow storm heading in. According to Bill, 20 inches of snow was expected to fall during the course of this storm. Hmm...I guess this was pretty serious!
And sure enough, after a few more minutes, everyone received a text message from the USU Emergency Alert system signifying that any classes after 2:00 were canceled. (The storm was scheduled to hit around 3:00)
I was bummed! Why? Besides Institute, English is my only class of the day...and it started at noon. I've never had a snow day in my life! Even in high school, there was one day where a third of the students couldn't make it to class because they lived in the Valley. The snow banks were higher than my head, and the bus could barely make it up the hill on that dark and dismal day. Was school cancelled? Bah. What a ridiculous assumption.
But today! Today was my chance to rejoice in a Snow Day! And I had class...
So I went to the computer lab and finished writing up the draft for my research paper. As noon approached, I wandered down the hall to my English classroom, and blessed day - a beautiful yellow paper was taped to the doorway.
English 2010 at Noon
with Cowsert
has been Cancelled.
I knew somebody loved me. :)
I rushed off to work and wiped down the deserted bathrooms. As I talked with my supervisor, Christy, we discussed the possibility of a power outtage if this storm was going to be as bad as the weathermen predicted. As I swished my rag around, it occurred to me that I had no flashlight in my possession. A Wal-Mart run was in order as soon as I was done with work.
As I drove my car to Wally-World, I looked out across the valley. The skies didn't look any darker or grayer than usual. The wind was gusty, but not freezing...I was starting to doubt this so called "blizzard." But a flashligh is a flashlight, and I certainly lacked this potentially needed item.
Wal-Mart was busy! It's as if 2012 planned to arrive earlier than expected and everyone was stocking up on supplies. I manuevered my way to the back of the store to pick me up a flashlight...and the wall was barren. Apparently, I was not alone in my thought process. But I secured the $4.00 Rayovac LED Model with 40 hours worth of battery life and 3 AAA batteries included. The blue and silver one would do nicely. :)
I came home, popped the batteries into my new handy-dandy flashlight, and secretly hoped that the power would go out...
Bill accidentally bought the wrong oil filter for his truck. He called and asked me if I would pick up the right size, and I was happy to. But he wanted to be sure that I was okay with driving in "this weather."
"Oh! Is it snowing now?"
Bill laughed a little.
Melissa threw open the blinds.
Heh. Uh...it was definitely, definitely snowing.
Like clock work, the blizzard hit around 3:00. I wandered out to my car tightly bundled up. The wind was blowing so hard, it had now frozen my car door shut. With a little muscle, I yanked it open, scraped down the icy windows and headed out into the white-out that had settled in Cache Valley.
What would normally by a twenty minute round trip, took an hour - I kid you not. Everyone was taking things slow, seeing as visibility was awful. The snow pelted my face and the wind bit my nose as I booked it inside to Checker. I stood in amazement as my eyes took in the amount of oil filters that spanned the entire back wall. It was the great big wall of search and find! I managed to narrow it down to a particular shelf...and then resorted to having one of the men help me look for the right model number. Ta da! Success.
I bolted out the door. This blizzard was really happening! There was a mass exodus of vehicles leaving the Wal-Mart parking lot and I got gobbled up in the chaos. Yet, it was completely manageable and I had no problems or worries at all! Lex got me to where I needed to go quite nicely in his "all-season" tires.
I came home and talked with Melissa as she ate her dinner and I ate sour watermelons. :)
After Melissa set off for work in the horrendous weather, I slept on the cozy couch and enjoyed the warmth of my apartment. Bill came and picked me up around 7:00 and we set out in his truck and cruised the town. The only vehicles out, where those manly-man trucks and jeeps with 4-Wheel drive. :)
Half the businesses in Logan were open, half of them were shut-down for the night. Lucky for us, Wal-Mart was still open for business when Starbucks wasn't and we bought some hot chocolate mix...and I picked up a couple pairs of sweat pants...and Bill bought some candy canes...and I concluded that I had spent too much time at Wal-Mart for one day. :)
The snow eventually stopped, and the plows came out to clean everything up. After all that, I felt disappointed. Where were the 20 inches? I saw only 5 or 6! And two stars on the horizon?...psh...clear skies...I wanted to be snowed into my apartment so that I could pray long and hard for the power to go off so I could play with my flashlight. ;) Lucky for you, I decided to blog instead.
And now the impending doom has passed.
