An Ice Week

It was a quiet week. For only the third time in the 30 years I’ve lived here, the town shut down on account of winter weather. The weather people called it “epochal,” and most of Alaska got to share the fun.

It started last Monday morning, just as we were getting ready to head into town. Since the roads were still good, and school hadn’t been called off, we drove in. I knew it would get messy. And it did get messy.

We’re prepared for cold weather. We’re prepared for snow. But, in the interior of Alaska, we are not prepared for rain in winter. They called it the #icepocalypse on Twitter.

School buses on early routes headed back to the barn once they realized the situation was out of control, and getting kids home would be a bigger problem than getting them to school. Eight of my students showed up. Walkers, mostly. At first we thought the rest would probably just be late, but as the morning wore on, we realized that those lucky ducks would be home playing video games all day. A few parents came to take their kids home. I had six students by lunch time. School was called off for Tuesday. Yes!

But those of us who showed up that day had to stay until we could be officially discharged, even though the situation outside was getting more treacherous by the hour. Bureaucracy, how it grinds along! We hung out. Early in the afternoon I got a call from my wife letting me know that she had our three high schoolers in the car, and they were crawling home. 20 miles. Eventually, the principal found someone to cover for me in my classroom, with the few kids who were still there at 2:00, and I headed home also.

I drove the whole 20 miles in second gear, miraculously making it over a steep hill mostly in my own lane. Since we live pretty far out of town, I had the last 8 miles of road all to myself. Good thing, too, because I needed all of it. I parked strategically and put a concrete block (which eventually froze hard to the ground) under one of the tires so the truck wouldn’t slide back down the hill while I was in the house.

Intermittent power failures the next day were no big deal, as they only lasted a few hours and we had plenty of (wet) firewood. But walking outside was another matter. Over an inch of steady rain glazed everything smooth. School was called off for Wednesday, too. Again, yes!

After a day or so of hanging out around the house, my kids were bored enough to try skating on the driveway, and an idea for a little neighborhood skating party out on the road took shape.

By Thursday, Thanksgiving, the weather had system passed through, snow fell, and it got colder. With traction, we can resume normal activity. I went snowboarding today, and the groomed runs were fast.