75 mph winds and a whole lotta fun!

The last couple of days we had the biggest blizzard I’ve ever seen! The winds were hurricane-force - 75 mph - it was a complete white-out most of the time, and it lasted for over 2 days! It cleared up and the winds died down to 40 mph, for school to continue of course, but after school we had some CRAZY adventures! It’s state testing this week, so when the kids are finished we send them home - by 1:00 they were all gone, so the rest of the staff and me were hanging out in Brandi’s class. Grant came in and said “Kim, you should check out the blizzard!” So of course I jumped up and ran outside, and immediately got knocked backwards! I came back in and he said we should make a video of me running outside in it with Paula doing the voice-over. So we were all giddy, excited to go play in the crazy weather. We got geared up as fast as we could and ran outside. The only problem was I didn’t have my snow pants - I was wearing my carhartts, and they are not waterproof! So with the snow blowing straight at me at 75 mph it didn’t take long before I was soaked. Plus I kept diving in the snow. 

We had some great laughs! It was so awesome - I had to run forward just to stay standing in the wind. After several videos (check my facebook) I was thoroughly drenched and pretty frozen, but it didn’t phase me. Paula wanted me to run to her house and get her goggles and gloves. I wanted to see what it would be like to go out without a jacket, and I thought I had a pretty good argument going for me, but Paula unfortunately wouldn’t permit it. “You don’t have a choice Kim! Put your jacket on!” ...well, she is the unofficial boss... next blog I’ll tell you a little more about colleagues, who’ve become my family here! So anyway, I hoisted the jacket on again and ran back out to retrieve her gear, this time with a few of my students videotaping me. I’ve been so ready for summer, but an intense April blizzard was sure a lot of fun. 

When it was time for everyone to head home I walked a few teachers to their homes just because you couldn’t see a darn thing by this time. I already lost one of my gloves in the snow, and with the new, soft drifts you sink through, I was worried about one teacher getting home, who had a knee replacement a few years ago. I hoped I would be able to help hoist her up if a fall took place, even though I only had one glove and was freezing! We went out the back door, taking the most direct route to her house. She did wind up falling, and we managed to get back up, me walking backwards and holding her hands, and her stepping in my footprints. It was pretty funny... I’m glad she wasn’t hurt and could laugh about it.

She made it to her house but her arctic door and been blown open. Her arctic room was completely plastered with snow. So I shoveled, trying to get the door to close... I finally got all the snow and ice out of the way, but the wind was too strong for me to pull the door against it to close, so I had to abandon it and she had to close her house door and leave the arctic room open. That’s why they have them, I guess! 

So then, (it was quite an adventurous day), my legs were super cold. I ran in the direction of our cabin, past Betsy’s house (who happened to be videotaping out her front door... this video is also on facebook) and met Naomi, just coming home from school. The snow was 2 feet deep on our porch and probably half a foot plastered to the door. We had to dig our way to get to the doorknob, and we couldn’t open it! It was frozen shut! We dug and pushed, scraped and kicked... but it wouldn’t budge. She tried to call Grant but he didn’t answer, so I ran back over to our neighbor’s house to use their shovel, but I couldn’t bang louder than the wind, and anyway, the houses shake so bad she probably didn’t even realize there was someone out there. So I came back, all the time hitting my legs so they don’t get frostbite, and threw myself at the door. Then I ran to another neighbor’s house, but before I got there Naomi finally managed to get it open with a good kick to the bottom, so whew! But then, once in the arctic room, the inside door wouldn’t even open! Really, though, I was enjoying the adventure. After a few minutes of pushing really hard we finally got inside! I was finally able to get on some warm clothes! 

Then I realized we were out of water, so I had to go back to the school. We could have melted the snow, but I was looking for an excuse to go back out anyway. :) It was such an amazing, crazy, and a ridiculous amount of fun kind of day!