Just before the weather arrived

The weather will start coming down in a bit. The forecast has solidified. We stand to get anywhere from three to nine inches of snow and a few quarts of ice. All of the local hardware stores are out of zambonis. Supply line problems, you understand.

All the hula hoops and bathing suits you want. Not a blowtorch can be found. Also, no crackers.

I could go for a good blowtorch just now. Probably be useful for the driveway tomorrow.

This was the view this morning. Grey, foreboding, and not just because we’d grimly stared at this forecast for the last four days.

For whatever reason, just before I ducked into the studio for the evening, the sky was this curious lapis blue.

We’ll all be asleep when it turns. It’s rained all day. As of this writing, temperatures have now dipped to just below freezing and will continue to fall for a few days.

The local school district announced yesterday that they would go virtual for the rest of the week. (And I heard some stories today about how that’s going over with parents, who of course now must make make all sorts of adjustments.) The county closed all of their offices around midday today. Just before 9 p.m. tonight the university announced that campus would stay open, but classes and work would be done virtually tomorrow. One assumes people in the particular office that makes the weather adjustment announcements were also out stocking up on salt and shovels, hence the late decision. Winter weather is a fickle thing and can be notoriously difficult to forecast (at least back home), but again, the National Weather Service sent up signal flares on Saturday and Sunday. I’d already staked out my WFH status. But late word was … reassuring? Is that the word there?

At that point I’m not sure if it mattered. People had made up their minds. Dear friends, we live in the county. They don’t plow out here — well, the roads anyway — and I simply will not tempt fate when ice is in the conversation. From 2021:

Also, the city doesn’t do an especially good job of winter road maintenance in the part of the city that we have to cross to get to campus. From 2018:

I’m sure plowing an entire city is a challenging task — ots of roads, traffic, changing conditions — but I’ve been assured it is a thing some places achieve.

Maybe it comes down to limited resources. Decisions have to be made, and none of them are about you. Or me! That road in the old tweet above? That’s a four lane highway through the heart of local commerce and the city’s growth pattern.

Tonight the sports crew was in to produce shows about … sudoku puzzles. Fire extinguishers? Ice dispersal? No, sports. I think it was the later, actually.

They’re doing a weekly feature this month they’re calling Historic Hoosiers to coincide with Black History Month.

And they are starting with one of the true greats.

I tell anyone within earshot about George Taliaferro. And I was talking about him in breaks tonight. They’re all too young to remember him, of course. And, indeed, some of the younger members of IUSTV weren’t even on campus when he passed away in 2018. But they all need to know him. I’m grateful for having had the opportunity to hear his story. I never met him, unfortunately, but there are a lot of really great videos online about him, and I hope they seek him out. His football was impressive, but truly the least important thing about him. We should probably remind ourselves about that of every athlete. I’ll say it about Taliaferro until everyone around here knows his story. Which means I’ll say that about him for as long as I’m here.

And if you’re getting weather, watch these videos on George Taliaferro yourself.

Here, he is telling his story to school children, which he did over and over. And you’ll see why that’s important in just a moment.

The sports shows they produced tonight will be up tomorrow. I’ll put them here. Until then, you can watch the news shows the news folks did last night.

This just needs to be longer, and have more stories and packages in it, really.

And here’s the pop culture show. Did you know all of these things? I did not. Pop culture might be leaving me behind. Maybe this is the year.

“The year” was actually several years ago. But I’m faking my way through it.

Anyway, they wrapped just as the temperatures hovered at 31 and 32. I walked out of the building and toward the car in a fine sleet.

I drove slowly to the house. And arrived safely with a nice peaceful feeling. Everyone is where they should be, and we don’t have to worry about tomorrow. Full day tomorrow, but at least it will be from home.

Good thing I bought a new office chair last month! And thanks to my mother for that.

The daily duds: The last one of these. And this is a good one to retire it on. It was new tie Wednesday. And new pocket square Wednesday. The latter was a Christmas gift from my in-laws.

Looks even better in person.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022 at 9:56 pm and is filed under history, IU, memories, photo, television, Twitter, video, Wednesday. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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