Snow Day Part III

Well, in case you didn't know this has been my work schedule this week:
Monday:  8-1:30
Tuesday: Snow Day
Wednesday: Snow Day
Thursday: Snow Day

You can't make this stuff up.  I already covered part of the Storm of the Century and that got us out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Oh, and part of the reason we were out today.  You see, I'm under the impression that the area of Illinois that I live in is... inefficient plowing.  I think that's putting it politely since there was no reason not to go today, but many of the country roads still weren't plowed.  I'm not complaining; I just think that parts of Wisconsin would have had it plowed by today.. I also think that what was plowed would be the entire roads.. not just random lanes.  For instance, one of the bigger intersections in town that normally has 2 left turn lanes, 2 straight lanes and a right turn lane had:  2 left turn lanes and 1 straight/right turn lane.  You can't make this stuff up.  I'm hoping that they were doing this to save money? 

The last few days were boring.. yesterday, we couldn't leave our house because our street didn't get plowed (shocking).  The only time we were outside was to shovel until our backs hurt, awesome.  Then, last night we played Cribbage and King's Corner (some game Kayla invented and made rules up for as we went).  After her made up game, I quit playing and slammed my cards down because I lost.  Twice.  In a row.  I had enough of that! 

Today, however, we were able to get out of the house and we went to Cardinal Fitness.  I'm still strongly considering (haven't officially signed up yet) running the Illinois Marathon at the end of April.  I've been inconsistent with training because I'm lazy, it's cold and we're at the tail end of our basketball season, but today I decided I was going to just run for awhile.  Kayla had 2 miles and weights, so I said I'd just run that time.  Well, 2 miles and weights turned into 2 miles, weights and talking to a friend for a good 25 minutes.  It's a good thing for me that after the first 5 steps I gotta feeling, "This is going to be a good run!" and I kept hammering away.  Before you know it, I eclipsed 8 miles in 56:15.  My knee didn't twinge, my IT bands didn't get super sore, I had a nice stride, I didn't get too hot.  I just had a great run and that really picked my confidence back up.  Of course, tomorrow and Saturday I may have basketball games.. so that means I probably have to get up EARLY both days to run.  Will the streak continue?  Don't hold your breath!

A cruel, cruel joke?

I love mother nature; I love nearly everything about her.  I love the rain, I love thunderstorms.. and I used to love snow.  That's all changing, at the moment.  The "Storm of the Century" just swept through the midwest depositing around 11 or more inches of snow in the 217.  I didn't mind that, I didn't mind the drifts of 2+ feet that piled up on my patio or in my driveway.  In fact, I enjoyed being outside today and cleaning off the driveway.. since we haven't gotten many good snows down here like we're used to in Wisconsin.  That snow and my aching back weren't a problem... until now.

My basketball team is why it's a problem.  Last week Thursday we won our 7th grade regional game.  I had them practice Friday and gave them off Saturday.  Apparently that was a huge mistake and it gets worse.  Monday we got out of school early so no practice.  Tuesday?  No school = No practice.  Game was scheduled to be Wednesday.  Well... guess what?  No school = no game.  Of course, now we have to push the game back to Thursday.  EXCEPT WE ARE NOW OFF THURSDAY ALSO!  No school = no game.  There are snow drifts in the country and frigid temperatures tomorrow; with how sue happy people are today that's a recipe for failure for a school district.  That means our game gets pushed back to Friday.

This is where it gets even crazier.. since state starts on Saturday if our game doesn't get played Friday, how do they decide who goes?  Easy answer according to the IESA?  A coin flip.  No head to head, no common opponents, no overall record, nothing like that.  A coin flip.  Unreal.  I'm still in shock.  They can't even let the team captains rock, paper, and scissors their way to state?  A free throw contest?  Put a number behind your back?  I'm still in shock.  I really am.

Lets pray that Friday doesn't become a snow day.  The kids deserve to play the game for their chance to make it to state and if they don't because of a coin flip, I don't know what to tell them.  What would you say?  Sorry, but even though we beat this team by 20 earlier this year.. I called tails and it landed heads?  I just can't fathom having to do that.  NO SNOW DAY FRIDAY!  NO SNOW DAY FRIDAY!