Cant Keep Quiet!

Well, temperature wise it’s maybe late fall. Today. Tomorrow we go back to early fall/late summer weather.

Unless you live in Colorado you are probably experiencing warmer than usual weather. Here the high was 63. Tomorrow it will be in the 70s and by Friday we’ll be back to 80 degree weather. Even for Florida that is higher than normal weather for this time of year.

According to a story on the Discover Channel site

Preliminary data from the National Climatic Data Center listed the average temperature for the 48 contiguous states last year as 55 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 2.2 degrees warmer than average and 0.07 degree warmer than 1998, the previous warmest year on record.

2006 was the warmest year on record for the United States. It was the 6th warmest year on record for the world.

Personally, I like it to stay cool for more than a day. At least then I might be able to convince myself we actually have seasons here in Orlando.

Yeah, I know. Dare to dream.

Thunder and lightning.
A flash followed by a bang
Timed with school’s release.

This actually happened yesterday and I wrote this last night. For a while, though, it looked like it might happen today.

Yes, that’s exactly how I feel today. I’ve been outside twice today to run errands. Both times I felt it was hot enough to melt people if they stood in one place for more than a minute. You have to move just to create a nominal breeze to keep from melting.

The weather prediction was for the temperature to only get to about 90 degrees today. According to WeatherBug it’s 91 degrees. Factor in the humidity, though and the heat index says it’s 98 degrees (actually, it’s fluctuating between 97 and 98 degrees). Personally, I think the heat index is wrong. It doesn’t feel like 98 degrees. It feels like 120 degrees.

My last errand run was to go to the store to get some groceries for my aunt. One of the things she wanted was ice cream. I stood with the door to the ice cream open just looking at the brand and flavor she wanted for about a minute or so. The icy air coming out of the freezer felt like heaven. I wasn’t even trying to find what she wanted. I had it right in front of me. I just didn’t grab it so I could look like I was trying to find something.

I hate when it’s hot like this!

So, who knows the name movie for the quote in the title of this post? What’s the character’s name that says it? Who played the character?

Today was a total waste.

Yes, it was nice to sleep late on a Wednesday and not be worried about being late for work. However, now I have to go to work on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Orange County Public Schools has several days in place in the school calender to replace any days needed for severe weather. They are called “Bad Weather Days.” Prior to the 2004 hurricane season, OCPS had only 1 Bad Weather day. To be fair, even the amount we have now wouldn’t have covered all the days needed due to hurricanes Charlie, Frances, and Jeanne.

Normally I would agree that it is a good thing to take day off rather than put students and staff at risk. Tropical Storm Ernesto, however, wasn’t a risk waiting to happen. In fact, we’ve had afternoon thunderstorms that were more dangerous than Ernesto.

We were notified yesterday before the end of the school day that Orange County public schools would be closed today. I wasn’t that thrilled about it yesterday but I understood the reasoning. As the day turned into evening and evening into night, however, I began to ask, “Hey, Blocker, aren’t you going to reverse your decision?”

With every weather update yesterday, it became more and more obvious that Ernesto was more likely to be a tropical depression than a tropical storm by the time it reached Orange County. The decision to keep schools closed was not reversed.

Now a day has been wasted that may well be needed later in the hurricane season.

Don’t get me wrong. If Ernesto had held the pattern that was being predicted early yesterday, I wouldn’t have a problem with the schools being canceled today. Well, I have a ton of work to do but I would understand the goal of keeping everyone safe. Ernesto didn’t hold its path or strength and it was fairly obvious that it wasn’t going to be much when the 11 pm report came out.

Personally, with no evidence to support my guess, I think that the decision was made early to make sure it would be on the local networks by 5 pm and in the morning paper. If Ernesto had been a hurricane, this would have been a good reason to announce the closings early. I personally feel that the decision could have been held for a tropical storm. If the decision was held until the 11 pm weather announcement (which the school district could get before it was aired just by promising to let a particular station be the first to report that schools would/wouldn’t be closed) it would still make the 11 pm news broadcast.

The school calender is not filled with unlimited “Bad Weather Days.” Just because they are available is not a reason to close schools for a storm that was showing signs of falling apart late the night before. They should be used for what they are there for, hurricanes and strong tropical storms. Not days where the weather is no worse than it would be if a front was coming through the area. A decision does not have to be made in time for the afternoon news and the morning paper.

Yesterday I had to go to a training so I could learn how to DIBEL. Don’t ask.

I have a love/hate relationship with trainings. This year in particular I love getting a break from my school/principal. The only problem is I hate playing catchup on all the work I miss.

I used to hate going to trainings because I hated to have to work up lesson plans. I would leave very detailed lesson plans (down to including what questions to ask and what responses to expect — hey, I taught special ed!) only to come in the next day to find most of what could be accomplished in a day under the slowest of subs not done or lessons were done the wrong way.

Now I don’t have to worry about lesson plans but I do have to worry about how much work has piled up, how many teachers were looking for me for advice, how many people called wanting one thing or another, etc.

Today was no different. I had a ton of e-mail I had to address, phone messages I had to return, teachers who had been looking for me, a principal who needed information, and meetings to get ready for and hold.

On top of all that, I had an allergic reaction to a pimple medication I put on my face.

Yes, at 41 I still get pimples (stress and that time of month).

I’m allergic to sulfa and it’s not a pretty allergic reaction. Unfortunately, many pimple medications have sulfa in them. Even more unfortunately, I have yet to see one that listed sulfa among their ingredients. They might have Active Ingredient XXXXXXX and that’s about it. I don’t know if that means that sulfa is an inactive ingredient or in too small an amount for the company to have to report. I do know that it doesn’t matter to me what the reason, if I use something with sulfa in it I will have an allergic reaction. A bad one.

Last night I put some zit cream on a pimple (not much at all) and this morning my entire face was very red, swollen, and itchy. I washed my face a couple of times, took a shower, and then had to head to work. At that point I was hoping I would have a quiet day and the red, swollen, itchy look I was sporting would fade away.

That wasn’t going to be my day. Instead I had several meetings with parents that had multiple concerns/wants/etc for their child. I don’t have a problem with this unless the parents are unreasonable and none of these parents were unreasonable. However, I did end up about 30+ minutes behind in my schedule due to the need to discuss all their concerns. Thankfully parents waiting for meetings were very understanding. The meetings themselves would have not been a problem at all except I was distracted by the urgent need to scratch my face. I’m surprised I have a lower lip I was biting it so much to keep from scratching.

I finally had enough time between meetings to run to the store and buy some antihistamine. This morning I was worried about falling asleep in my meetings. By lunch time I was more worried about scratching my face raw.

The antihistamine helped but my face right around where I actually put the medication is still itchy. Just not nearly so bad.

I can od on antihistamines if I want to right now because Ernesto is giving me a forced day off tomorrow. Personally, I wouldn’t mind going into work so I could get caught up on everything that is piling up on my desk. Unfortunately I can’t do that. Instead I’ll sleep in, watch tv, and hope that Ernesto doesn’t force me to take two days off.

I’ve got way too much to do to want a 2 day break right before a 3 day weekend.