I overheard a staff member telling someone at the gym yesterday, that in the twenty years she had worked at Wittenberg, school had never been closed for three days in a row. And yet, that’s exactly how the first three days of February came to Springfield, Ohio. Apparently, there’s a magical temperature somewhere between freezing and not, where precipitation swings from rain to ice – the end result being that the ground outside is uniformly covered in a sheet of ice, mostly from rain hitting the ground and quickly freezing. The first day was anticipated and a welcome chance to sleep in. The second day of school cancellation was a somewhat surprising one that came in the form of a text message at 6AM. That day was actually the one during which I woke up to snowfall outside. I also got to take some pictures of people skating around campus and playing ice hockey on Alumni Way, the walkway that goes past the student center and dining hall. Most of us were ready to go to class on Thursday morning, but the sidewalks still hadn’t been cleared up quite well enough for it to be safe to go to class, so students let out yet another campus-wide sigh of relief and allowed themselves a few extra presses of the snooze button.
There have been plenty of jokes made about Ohio weather, since I got here, but it goes to show, that they are more than warranted. You never know what or when to expect when it comes to meteorology around here. Apparently, a big chunk of the country is under snow from the very same storm though. I saw pictures of downtown Chicago, which looked decidedly apocalyptical and entirely snow-colored.
Since we hadn’t been to class on Tuesday or Wednesday, Thursday felt something like a Sunday, along with the idea that we had a whole full week ahead of us once again. But here I am now, well rested, on a Friday afternoon, with a whole new weekend ahead of me. They don’t make them all like this.
Martin