2016.01.05 Terrifying Frozen Wasteland

At the very eve of the Castle Clan in PDX returning to work and school, the weather decided to scare the locals with some snow and ice.

It wasn't scary at first. The kids and I, and virtually every warm-blooded able-bodied human, instinctively went outside to play in the rare accumulation. Sledding and snowballs and snow sculptures happened. It was fun. I felt a twinge of longing for my northern homeland, and for all kinds of frigid slippery goodness.

Then the warning that Portland Public Schools would have a "late start" came through (thanks to the marvels of modern technology, we get direct notification by text as-it-happens). It's a pain, because the actual definition of "late start" for public school is apparently "blow the whole morning" because it disposes of the before-care as well as moving back class time. Also a pain because S has no paid leave left, meaning I'm on the hook, looking after the kids in addition to my blossoming return-to-work stress.

Then PPS just cancelled the whole day, which also closed the hospital, meaning that S could stay home. Probably. Maybe. Well, just to be on the safe side, I darted into work (through the dreaded Ice Storm!) to grab my computer to work remotely. The day went by with me discovering just how much I really do need to be in the office to do many tasks. But whatever.

Oh, look: the ice still hasn't melted. The. Horror. PPS blasted out another text that Tuesday would be a late start. Gah. Wait... no, update that to cancelled again.

Honestly, I have no idea why.

Sure, there were some pocket neighborhoods with still-icy roads, but all the main roads were totally clear and fine. Just don't be a total idiot in those remote areas, and just get on with it. And I do have a great deal of sympathy for how treacherous PDX can be in an ice storm - even for a seasoned winter driver such as myself, it's amazingly dangerous. But it wasn't like that. There was patches of ice, certainly, but nothing that needed to cripple every family in the city with school-age children.

So it goes. I take another work-remotely day, and chauffeur the wife into her office - mostly for the sake of getting out and about. And proceed to grind away the very last nubs of my patience for my children and my ground-to-complete-halt projects and my barrage-me-with-stupid texting coworkers.

Well, it's all melted now. They can't possibly cancel school again. Even the old guy up the steep street with the Prius is confident enough to drive around. Except, well, technically there still is ice in some gutters... They wouldn't cancel school again for that, would they? They can't. They can't! It would be too... too... horrible.

Please. Please let me go back to my office.