Over the past week we’ve had every form of precipitation except hail. We missed school Tuesday and Wednesday due to icy roads. We really dodged the bullet compared to folks in Kentucky and other parts of the country though.
GETTING THE WORD OUT. When I was a kid we seemed to miss a lot of school due to snow. I remember those nights and mornings keeping part of my attention on the TV for the school closing report. Nothing was more exciting than seeing Robertson County with snow glittering down over the county on the school closing map. One year we missed about four weeks straight. It was fun in the winter, but it got old when Spring Break was cancelled and we were making up school on Saturdays and on it to June (our schools normally closed before Memorial Day as they do now). Today, they still have the school closing report like I saw as a kid but in addition to that the closings crawl across the lower third of the TV screen and are posted on the Internet.
Now I don’t make a practice of sharing many details about my job here, but what I am about to report is something I find simply astounding. This year Robertson County Schools has been able to take advantage of a phone messaging service. One way we use this service is to call parents when we have a delayed opening, closure, or early dismissal due to inclement weather. This service can make about 1,000 phone calls per minute to deliver a message recorded by our Director of Schools. Within 15 minutes the system has attempted to call the parents of our 10,800 students at least once. It usually has better than a 90% success rate (meaning a real person or their voice mail answered and got our message). And all this is happening when other school systems across the nation may be using the service for the same thing. Truly amazing!
THANK YOU LORD! Early Tuesday morning started out with freezing rain. This wave of our precipitation was short lived, but it coated everything with ice before moving on. I was up while this was happening. At 5:58 I was sitting on the couch about to get up and take a shower when I heard a large, deep cracking sound. I don't have to guess -- a tree has been coated with too much ice to hold up any longer. I brace for impact, hoping it doesn't hit the house. I hear the crunch as the tree hits the ground. The house is okay, so where did the tree fall? Then I hear a car stop in front of our mailbox.
Turns out a large section of the maple tree by the mailbox broke off about 6-8 feet above the ground and fell across the highway. Thank you Lord that car wasn't a moment earlier. Thank you Lord the TDOT truck happened along within 30 seconds of the tree falling so they could turn on their flashing ambers on their light bar (the road was reopened within 30 minutes). Thank you Lord the house is okay and we still have power (the power line passes through the edge of the tree). Thank you Lord TDOT came back Thursday to cut up and haul off the rest of the tree (probably because it was in their right of way).
THE SICK HOUSE. We’ve had sickness run though our family of late. It started with me a week ago Wednesday (the 21st). I don’t know what I had, but I felt terrible for about 24 hours. Nate followed me. Jenna was next. Vicki took her to the doctor. It was strep. Then Ben’s number came up. His was strep as well. We’re all healthy now, but it’s been pretty rough around here.
Joe
