And Even More...

Yes, we got another load of snow today, which means that I had to help shovel the driveway once I got home (makes it three time this week).  Thankfully the air was a bit warmer so the drive wasn't too bad, and the driveway is already melting the rest off.  But we could still get more, especially since we need the water.
Had my first math test today.  Trying to find the testing center was a challenge as my teacher had to go through the science department instead of the regular testing center.  Cold, windy, and a good fifteen minute walk while it was still snowing.  Not good for someone trying to focus on math without getting chilled.
I'm getting a regular workout from shoveling snow and traveling around campus.  Why do I have a personal trainer? Oh yeah, because that won't build the muscle I want consistently.

Grumble...

I guess not everyone has the expirence needed for driving in moderate to severe winter weather.  But you'd think it was common sense that if the roads are slick, you DON'T slow down when going uphill.  Downhill and on level ground, yeah you want to slow down.  But going uphill you need a bit more speed if you want to make it all the way up.  This morning I had several encounters with motorists slowing down on hills and barely reaching the top.  When traction is limited, especially on long hills, speed up a little.  That will give you the best chance of avoiding getting stuck on the hill.
I actually slid a little going downhill, but thankfully didn't hit anyone or anything.  Was very close to two other cars though.  Much closer than I'd like to get in those situations.  Snowplows were having a hard time keeping up with the snow, as it kept coming down for a good hour after I got home.  Good news is that as long as most of it was cleared up the rest melted when the sun came up.

Even More...

Snow?!  We got another foot here yesterday.  And we're supposed to get the same amount later this week.  My sisters poor dog gets buried when he goes out to do his buisness.  At least if he leaves the path she tromped down for him.  My mom's small dog has th same issue, and our big dog doesn't want to run-which she usually takes off when we let her out.
It's much warmer though, and the roads are only iffy without the big threat of sliding off the road.  And most of the stuff melted off by the time I headed home from school.
The snow made my brothers homecoming thing a rather sparsly attended affair, as it took the farthest out relatives a good hour(unless they left before it started) to get to our house.  But there was good food, fun conversations, and the typical hour of shoveling to be repeated throughout the afternoon...

More?

Not only is there a nice layer of ice, now we have thick fog that makes things even worse.  You can't see more than half a block away, if you're lucky.  Thankfully the ice has started to soften and melt, so stopping is not a big issue, but seeing in time to stop is.
There was a bus that slid into the back of a truck because of visablity issues.  No bad injuries, as no one had to be taken to the hospital, but I think there was a lot of damage.
My newly returned brother spent the morning clearing the driveway, so I didn't have a repeat of yesterday's slide.  But getting cars into the driveway proved quite interesting when my sister got home from work.  Even after my dad coated the driveway she still had trouble getting in.  She did avoid sliding into the snowbank though.

Of All Days...

Yesterday my brother got home from his mission.  I woke up with a headache that persisted all day.  Then his plane landed 25 minutes early.  We had difficulty parking, and it was very cold.  The inversion didn't help either.
We got home safely.  And the little celebration party was fun, as my sister and her husband came by with my other brother, their daughter, and their ward.
But today we got freezing rain.  That is simply where it rains, but the ground is so cold the rain drops freeze as soon as they hit the earth.  This forms a growing layer of ice the clings to everything.  I had to scrape off the side mirrors to my car before and after school.  Driving wasn't fun, and while I made it home, I got stuck in the snowbank on one side of the driveway because the car slid.  My dad had to sprinkle ice melt all over and shovel some of the ice off before we could get it back off.  The good news is that it was clear of the road, so there was no worry over cars hitting it.  I had to crawl out of the passenger side door, as the driver side one was blocked by the snow.

Cloudless Snow?

If you watched National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, You've heard the phrase 'cloudless rain'.  We've been getting cloudless snow every morning for the past week or so.  What happens is the air gets so cold that any moisture-like fog off a nearby lake-freezes and then falls like snow.  Without clouds.  Makes the stuff on the ground nice and sparkly, but doesn't clear the air much.  Plus your hands develope the habit of trying to stick to any surface they come in contact with.  Say your car door or keys.
And then you lose feeling in your fingers in seconds.  The windshield and side windows fog up so fast you can't see through them.  The light skiff is fun, but the frost that comes with it is not.  Unless it freezes to the trees-that's kinda cool, though I hope they don't start exploding.  If the sap gets cold enough, the tree blows open.  Splinters go everywhere.

Trying to Think...

The biggest issue I have with colds is the headache that often comes with them.  If I even have a slight stuffy or runny nose I get a headache.  And that does not help with keeping school work going.  I'm supposed to plan a science project, study for five different classes, do the homework for four of them, take quizzes and a test in the fifth, and find jobs to apply for.  Getting a cold throws all that out of whack, as I can't concentrate long enough to get any useful stuff done.
Plus we're moving things around this week in preparation of my brother getting off his mission.  He's coming home to an interesting situation.  I'm sick but getting over it, my dad is getting sick, my youngest brother just broke his wrist, my second youngest brother is courting pneumonia by walking an hour and 20 minutes almost every day regardless of the weather-though we did talk him out of going during the last big snow storm.

Illness...

I do not like getting sick, and there is some cold bug running around campus right now.  I've heard at least three other people sniffling in each class.  Unfortuantly I'm one of them.  My younger brother was coughing this morning, but then he insisted on going for a fourty minute walk-and that's one way.  At least I'm expirienced enough to spend little time outside when I'm sick.  Especially when it's barely 20 degrees right now.
Then my youngest brother fractured his wrist in gym class.  Another student kicked a basket ball-he was aiming somewhere else-and hit his wrist on accident.  I still had to check him out of school and drive him to the hospital.  And when I've got a cold I try to avoid driving unless I have to.  But my mom was still at work and I'd just finished class for the day, so I got tapped.

Games

Here's a new class exercise: Be given a small number of objects and a half hour to make up a game using those objects in a group.  There are 4 to 6 in a group, and most of the objects are balls of different sizes and types.  You can use any school supplies your group brought to class if you want.  But there are three requirements: it needs to have a goal, rules, play, and pretending in some form.
You are also supposed to try and make it possible for anyone to win.  Now imagine that you are a girl in a group with five other men, and your objects are a wiffle ball (like a thick ping pong ball with holes in it) and a softball sized bean bag.  While the bean bag has purple pentagons and yellow triangles, the wiffle ball is just plain white.  The purple pentagons have random letters in them.
You have 30 minutes to figure out a game using these materials and the school stuff you and your teammates brought that day.  We did the best we could.  Our game wound up just using the bean bag and a 'hypothetical' piece of velcro.  I think the teacher liked our game title more than the game we came up with, but hey, we managed.

Melting, Melting..

It's finally warm enough that the roads are melting.  They've been covered in ice and hard slush for the past two days.  While this does mean that everything is all wet, it also means a safer commute.  Hopefully it doesn't freeze tonight, as there will be alot more of the ice, just less of the snow.  Not supposed to get any more snow for a while.
Job hunting is not going well.  I'm running out of places I can apply to.  My sister got a new computer yesterday and spent a lot of time getting it set up and then figuring out how to use it-it's an ipad.
Crazy icicles all over- school and at home.  My brothers were talking about making a snowman, but never got around to it.  Too busy trying to clear the driveway I think.  He'd be melting right now too.

It's Still Cold, but School Goes on...

I saw a sign on my way to school that stated the temperature as -5.  This was at 9'oclock this morning. and yes the sun was up.  My math and english teacher are trying to make up for the snow day on friday, which for english is skipping a reading assignment.  For math it means he has to rush through the material a little-still has to cover it, as he can't skip stuff or we'll all be confused.
Running around campus was not fun.  Felt like my hands were burned-and they were bright red after I got inside.  I've got all my textbooks now, and all my needed materials.  No go on the job interview-did well, but didn't get the job.  Argh.  So I'm still looking in that area.  Keeping up on the homework, so that's one benefit of being unemployed.  Not much of one though.
Changed the battery in my truck but the new one doesn't fit.  The cold still made it hard to start vehicles-my mother had to take a different car as hers wouldn't start.

Schools Closed.

This storm has closed the school campuses until 4 today.  While this gives me plenty  of time for online classwork, it also means I can't turn in my regular classwork.
It snowed all night and is still snowing this morning-just as the weathermen predicted.  So it's not too surprising that they closed the campus, what with all the slide offs and accidents that occured yesterday and this morning.  But I worked hard to get my homework for today done and now I don't need it until monday.
It's not too cold though-I was sweating in my room last night.  But we shoveled our driveway last night and will need to do so again this morning.  Possibly multiple times today if this keeps up like they are thinking.  The school district my brothers attend is also closed, so they are probably going to spend they day playing around inbetween shoveling.
I have an interview this afternoon-Yes!-but my morning has other homework so I can't be playing around today.  Not if my goal is to get all A's this semester.

Storm Gandalf?

It's finaaly warming up and we get Storm Gandalf?  That is a winter storm supposed to last until sunday and give us up to a foot of snow.  Given how hard it's snowing, I'm betting that's an understatement.  It's not cold, but it is very hard to see.  there are four cars just along my street that have slid off the road.  Not into dangerous areas, mind, just driveways and curbs. But my street usually gets plowed often enough to avoid that problem.  my dad had issues getting into the driveway!
It's been snowing maybe an hour and we've got close to three inches already(hence the understatement thing).  It's making it hard to see the trees in my backyard.  The wind doesn't help either, since it's driving the snow right into the windows.  The warmth melts it so anything you see it blurred and distroted.
Not sure how we are going to walk the dogs in this...

Classrooms

I've noticed one big difference in classrooms coming from junior high and high school and entering college.  Teachers don't 'personalize' their rooms in college.  Why? Because most often they are moved from semester to semester, and sometimes they teach in two or more classrooms.  So any materials they need they have to bring each time.  In the lower levels schools they get to stay and organize the room.  So those teaching college have to made do with varying classrooms.  Not to mention some teach multiple subjects.
So students are not the only ones running from class to class in college.

The Challenge!

I was challenged by a close family member to get all A's this semester.  While this is possible-though not easy in any way-it does cut inot job hunting time, but not much.
I thought I'd start by breaking it down.  I have five classes with only one online for now.  One is an art class, so that may take a lot of my time.  I do have two religion classes, but those don't have much homework-just reading-and much demand for my time.  One is english, which so far has a handful of small assignments  and one big one plus the final test.  One is a math class that I'm taking for the second time.  That has a lot of homework but it's only due once a week-have to keep on top of it though.
One not so typical-a computer intro to entertainment class.  Don't know how that one will turn out yet.  The last one is a medical class, but which one is not set in stone yet, as I'm hoping to get in a better one.
At this point I'm hoping to get all the homwork in on time-if not early.  As classes just started that's all I have to worry about for now.
But I will fight to keep my grades up and raise my GPA!

Classes

AARRGGHH.  Ever found that one class you need and they've reserved it for the 'wait list'?  I finally found a class I've needed for the past year and they won't let me register for it!
Not to mention that some of the classes are scheduled at the same time so you can only take one of them!  Sigh.
And a lot of the online classes (which is one of two opitions for said class) are on that 'reserved for wait list' restriction.  I don't like online classes, but they do open up time for job hunting and studying.  I wish I could register for that one class!!!!
Being able to sign up for classes on line is good because you don't have to waste time going to school and doing it there, but they have little things like that that almost cancel out the benifits.

Cold!

You know it's cold when the news site says the HIGH is going to be 27.  And right now it says it's around 10 degrees.  then your car won't start because the cold killed the battery so you have get a jump (or if you're like me and have a battery charger but then spend a good hour in said cold weather setting it up) before you can go anywhere.  Yeah, that's cold.
At least I'm not having this problem next week, because I would have missed class by now if I were-at least I'm grateful I discovered it this week so it's solved by next week.

Happy New Year!

It's now 2013!  And the semester starts next week.  It's been very cold for several days.  I went to a fireworks show a friend put on monday night.  It was very cool, and cold at the same time.  They get a lot of nice fireworks for a discount because they run some of the stands during the summer season.
One thing I had expirience with for the new year: They mean it when they say to play the WII with a lot of space.  I was playing a dance game with two of my siblings and we were standing too close together.  I got a nice welt on my wrist and the back of my hand due to painful collisions with one of my siblings remotes.  It wouldn't have hurt so much if their remote had the jacket on it-another personal expirience, didn't get a welt when the jacket was on-but we didn't have enough.  I put ice on it so it's fine now, but wasn't much fun yesterday.
Goal for the new year: Pass all my classes and get a job!
My brother gets home from his mission this month, and we're all looking forward to that.  Though sleeping arrangements have turned out to be tricky.....