The non-commute

It's Tuesday, very white, very icy, and very cold. Currently 18° F (-7° C) and not forecast to get much warmer today. I know that's nothing spectacular to some parts of the country/world, but it is for our neck of the woods. We have about 3" of snow on our hilltop, and it is that very light and dry snow that comes with clear cold weather.

The sun isn't up yet here, but should be soon. It should be a beautifully clear day, which goes with the cold forecast.

I was up at 4:00 again this morning to ascertain if the roads were passable, see what the DOT was doing and recommending, and trying to guess what conditions would be throughout the day. Making the call to close the campus, or not, isn't easy at that hour. It is easy to start second-guessing decisions, and wondering if the roads would be cleaned up and readily navigable by, say, 10:00 AM. In the end, the data supported a decision to close campus for the day.

The problem with opting first for a delayed start as a wait-and-see approach (a decision that could have been made the night before, frankly), is that many folks start in to campus pretty early (especially when road conditions are bad). So making a subsequent decision to stay closed beyond the delayed opening catches many employees and students already en route. To them, it feels like we reversed a decision instead of extended one. Then the hate mail starts to pour in.

Then there is personal ego issue with this kind of decision. Frankly, its hard to make a closure call without feeling like a wimp. I know I could make it to campus this morning, driving my wife's car with studded tires and assuming everyone else on the road was prepared for the conditions and not stuck spinning in the middle of my path, but it will look like I can't. What if other colleges stay open and we are the only one closed all day? Will folks think we closed just because some of us were afraid to drive in these conditions? Will the mid-west and Northeast transplants roll their eyes derisively at our pathetic overreaction to a little cold and ice? But drill down a bit and you can see that all of those concerns are all about personal ego, and not good reasons upon which to make a decision like this.

So we come back to this: it is dangerously icy on all roads, the temperature is not going to warm up to anything that will change driving conditions today, wind and cold create a dangerous temperature for folks to out and about in, many roads are still cluttered with cars stuck from last night's commute (some with drivers still in them!), the State Patrol and DOT are asking folks to stay home today if they can, and our region and citizens are really not adequately prepared for these conditions. We simply don't need to add college traffic to already bad road conditions today.

If my ego need assuaged for having decided to close the campus I can take comfort in knowing our college made that decision first. All of the other area colleges, initially calling for only a late start, have since followed our lead and closed for the day. So there! ;-)

No music playlist this morning other than various TV stations showing video loops of hapless cars sliding down hills and constant traffic camera footage.

- Posted via iPad.