So it snowed today.

It snowed rather a lot, and rather unexpectedly as well.  I had no idea that it was snowing until I opened my garage door.  It’s a bit of a mystery how I managed to not look through any of the three windows in my bedroom, but I did it.  I am normally able to leave the house around 7:00 AM and arrive at work with a cup of McDonald’s coffee in my hand at around 7:25.  I wanted to be in by 7:15 today, so I left ten minutes early, at about 6:50.  It took 54 minutes to get to work.  Highways were shut down, cars were spinning off the road everywhere, and, as it turns out, there were a number of minor school bus accidents as well.

Keep in mind: everyone who lives here drives in snow for half the damn year.  Or at least what feels like half the damn year.  It was slick as hell outside; even taking the approach to my school very carefully I still managed to miss the damn parking lot, and even at lunchtime my anti-lock brakes kicked in on the very first turn out of the lot.  It was shitty outside today, people.

Anyway.  Back to those minor school bus accidents.  The district made the decision very early in the day to cancel all after-school activities and all field trips (I don’t know that there actually were any, mind you) and other things requiring transportation during the day as well except for that which was absolutely necessary to get kids to and from school.  So they decided to do an all-call to every parent in the corporation, because, well, that kind of decision is going to affect a lot of kids.

Important: I have not heard the all-call, but I’ve seen the carnagey aftermath, so it’s possible that I’m slightly misrepresenting this?  But apparently the all-call included, in addition to the cancellation information, the fact that there had been “several” minor bus accidents in the morning but– and this was apparently delivered with a cheery tone of voice, which given the person who I know sent it, doesn’t surprise me– there were “no serious injuries.”

Guess which words every fucking parent who got the call heard?  “Bus accident” and “injuries.”  The goddamned phones were ringing off the hook all day.  In addition to the usual complement of assholes who don’t answer the phone then don’t listen to their voicemail and just call the number back without knowing who it is they’re calling– those are always fun– we got a number of irate phone calls from parents who were mad because we hadn’t called them to let them know that their kids were in a bus accident.

Because, see, they weren’t.  

One parent was even angry that we hadn’t notified her that her child had been injured in a bus accident, and wanted to know what hospital she was at.  If her child doesn’t pass ISTEP, the school is blamed, people.

Not having an “I love my job” day right now, guys.