Bitter (and) Cold

I was trying not to be bitter that every school district around Our Lady of Perpetual Aggravation was closed yesterday, but our administrators chose instead to have a two-hour delay, which meant that we were all arriving just as the weather was at its worst. I was particularly trying not to be angry that our administrators didn't show up until 15 minutes before the start of the school day.

This became more difficult when I found out that (1) the Honcho had originally wanted to close the school, and had instructed the Academic Sub-Honcho to call in the closure to the radio station. However, when the Academic Sub-Honcho attempted to do this, he discovered that the Lamia of the Lower School had already called in a delay and hadn't bothered to inform the administrators of the upper school.

Furthermore, about the time people were starting to arrive and the roads and walkways were starting to be really bad, the Lamia came over to our offices and said she thought we ought to close because the weather was becoming dangerous. But the Honcho wasn't here yet, and therefore she decided that we would have to stick with the delay.

I was going to restrain my cynicism. I was not going to comment on how this place is run by the Three Stooges.

But then this morning I got up, turned on the radio, listened for closures and delays, and hearing nothing, drove in on time, fishtailing twice once I got into town. There was approximately no one in the parking lot, which seemed odd. As I got out of Buttercup, I was approached by a mother of two lower school children who wanted to know if there was a delay.

'Based on what I see here,' I said, 'it sort of looks like it, but I didn't hear anything on the radio.'

Just then one of the guidance counsellors pulled in. 'Is there a delay?' we asked him.

'I didn't hear anything on the radio, but there's no one here,' he said.

'Yeah, we noticed.'

Rather than stand in the parking lot, we went inside to check the office. The guidance secretary and the Honcho's personal assistant were there. 'Why are you here?' they asked.

'Well, we didn't hear anything that said we shouldn't be here,' we said.

'It was on the radio.'

'We listened and we didn't hear anything.'

'It was on at 6:30.'

'I just listened to the "complete list" a couple of minutes ago,' I told them. 'We weren't on it.'

I will spare you the blow-by-blow account of the bawling out I got. Apparently I listened to the radio incorrectly. How stupid of me.

To be fair, I suspect both ladies had already endured the full measure of phone calls from angry parents and were just at the ends of their respective tethers. Nevertheless it was not a pleasant start to my morning.

The consolation, if it was a consolation, was that we were not the only benighted souls to have missed the announcement. At least half the faculty and quite a few students and parents missed it, too.

In chatting with another earlybird, I picked up some more information. She'd received a call from the Maestra at 6:15, informing her that she (the Maestra) had called the Academic Sub-Honcho at 6 to complain that we weren't getting a delay because the roads were icy. As a result of the complaint he was going to call in the delay, and the Maestra thought the earlybird should know. I wish someone had called me. I could have gotten a whole extra hour of sleep.

All else aside, on what planet did the Honcho and Academic Sub-Honcho think the roads were going to be safe this morning? Why on earth didn't they think to call a delay earlier? And where the Lamia was in all this I don't know. Needless to say, no administrators are on site yet.

Just to make everything nicer, Back to School Night has been rescheduled for this evening, so the faculty can all drive home at 9:30-10 pm when the roads will have refrozen, and they did not bother to reschedule the two-hour delay for tomorrow, so unless the weather is bad again, we will have to be here first thing tomorrow morning.

This place is run by the Three Stooges. And yes, I am bitter.

verso - recto