Ah, Mother Nature...

This is what my Mother Nature (at her worst) inspired day looked like:

6:30 am - alarm goes off.  Wake up, check iPad for news of school closing.  None.

6:35 am - try to open screen door to see how much snow has fallen.  Door won't open all the way due to the volume of snow on the front porch.

6:36 am - curse my employer for our ridiculously strict interpretation of "inclement weather."  Dress for shoveling.

6:41 am - email from employer arrives.  Every other school in Sioux City and the surrounding area is closed.  We get a 2 hour late start.  Better than nothing?

6:45 am - exit house to begin shoveling.  Step off porch and sink in snow to my knees.  (Wish I had a picture of that!)  Trudge to back porch where snow shovel is stored.  (Can't go out back door because old wood door is swollen shut again.  I really need to get that fixed before next winter.)  Realize I should probably sweep snow off car first, so I don't have to shovel twice.

7:00 am - finish sweeping off car and begin shoveling driveway.  Snow is so deep I can't just "push" it to the side, but have to actually shovel.

7:10 am - realize that (a) this really sucks, (b) it's going to take a really long time, and (c) I am decidedly not in shoveling condition.  But I soldier on - since I have no choice.

7:45 am - finish shoveling a car-width path down the driveway and a shovel-width path to the front door.  Head inside to get ready for school.

10:00 am - 1:00 pm - teach very small classes, with nearly half the students not making it.  Only a few of those missing actually live off campus.  Listen to a lot of complaining about the fact that we have class from students who live in campus dorms connected by a tunnel to the classroom building.  Inform them that the next person who complains, but who actually hasn't been OUTSIDE IN THE SNOW AT ALL today, gets an F for the semester.

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm - go to meetings, essentially getting nothing on my To-Do list done, while adding several new things to said list.

5:40 pm - arrive home after a trip to the grocery store (2-day sale - 33 cent bananas!) to find that my street has been plowed during the day, leaving a pile of snow in my driveway entrance that my RAV-4 cannot handle.  This is unusual, as we are a low priority route (dead end streets have their disadvantages).  Park car in street, wade through said snow pile in my work clothes, retrieve snow shovel, and clear entrance enough to get car in.

6:05 pm - finally get car parked in driveway and bring groceries in.  Change into something warm and dry.  Heat up dinner and settle down for evening.  Twisted a knee during shoveling that is still hurting.  Back is tightening up.  Try to get motivated to start on that ever-growing To-Do list, even though it is Friday night.

6:25 pm - official snow plow comes through, re-piling mounds of snow in my driveway entrance.  Realize earlier plowing must have been someone on the street - they do that sometimes, since the top of the hill is really hard to make when it hasn't been plowed.  Realize I will have to break out the snow shovel for a 3rd time if I want to leave my house before spring.  Curse Mother Nature.

6:45 pm - check weather forecast.  Realize snow is predicted tonight, Sunday, and Monday.  Apologize to Mother Nature for taking her name in vain.  Remember I'm scheduled to speak on Sunday (hello, To-Do list!).  Hope if Mother Nature decides to dump on us again that she time it so church will be cancelled.  Feel guilty.  Look out window.  Quit feeling guilty.

To be fair, we've had a really, really mild winter.  This is the most snow that has fallen at once, and it was only around 15 inches (although the drifts were nastier!)  So today sucked, but I keep feeling like I shouldn't complain since spring will get here pretty soon.  My first winter here, it snowed like this in December and never completely melted until March!

6:55 pm - decide I haven't blogged in a long time, and that it's the perfect place to vent!