No School Again!

Yesterday and today I haven't had to go to work/school because of power outages. Yesterday, the entire district cancelled school; today, my building was one of three or four buildings that was closed. It was pretty awesome to wake up Monday morning and not have to go to school. It was even better today to wake up and not have to go. Even better, I get paid on calamity days (aka "snow days"). So, I'm pretty much getting paid to sit around home, surf the 'net, and watch television (yesterday's activities). Today I actually went out and about. I had to go downtown to the administration building to get my paycheck from last Friday fixed. I get paid by paper check and the checks that the treasurer sent out last Friday had "invalid" signatures, which on my check meant that there was no signature. I'm not authorized to sign my own check, so I had to drive into the admin. building and they stamped my check so I could deposit it. Then I went to the bank, the library, and Target...all while being paid. I love it!

You know what's even better? The fact that I don't have to go to work because my building has no power but I still have electricity here at home. I probably wouldn't be as chipper about the whole power outage scenario if I myself were without power. Like Ma back home. She called me late yesterday afternoon...from her car. Apparently the power at home went out Sunday afternoon and Ma's not sure when it's coming back on. Because Mom and Dad have well water, this also means that the pump is out, so Mom doesn't have any water. Dad, fortunately, is out of town this week and doesn't have to deal with the lack of electricity. Sorry, Mom!

Mom said that she is probably going to have to throw out everything that's currently in the refrigerator and depending on how long the power is out, everything that she has downstairs in the big freezer. Thank goodness my first anniversary has come and gone, otherwise my leftover wedding cake would be a goner (unbelievably, it was still tasty after a year in deep freeze!!). Mom also said that one of the trees at home, the ash tree (she tells me, as if I seriously know which of the fifty million trees at home is the ash tree), broke in half and will have to be chopped down. The house also suffered some minor wind damage; shingles were blown off of the roof and there is some siding that has come loose. Freakiest of all the damage is that one of the big pillars out front was almost blown off of the concrete porch! Yikes!

I'm not sure if I'll have school tomorrow or not...but after two days off, I'm so prepared to stay home again. I'm also not sure if today's school closure will count towards the state's allotted five calamity days. Yesterday obviously will, but since the entire district was not closed today, just a few buildings, I'm not sure if it counts toward the total or not. I'm hoping not, just in case we're closed more this week, and in case we have a lot of snow later this year.