It's 4AM, Do You Know Where Your Blizzard Is?

Groundhog's day is supposed to be in February, right? Then why do I feel like I am reliving the same day over and over and over? It is 4:39 A.M. (yeah, you heard me A.M.) and I am awake. WHAT? This is coming from the person with diagnosed narcolepsy, and I am awake at "4 o'clock in the blessed AM" (bonus point for knowing what show that is a quote from). The latest blizzard (I think this is number eight) has me awake. The wind is blowing really hard. I don't even want to venture a guess at what the speed is. Fast enough to make a creepy howling noise, shake my house, and have me awake in what I consider to be the middle of the night. On top of all the lovely wind noise, my allergies are awake and kicking too. You may be wondering what the correlation is between allergies and wind. Well, that's easier than it sounds. The house where I am living has a little mold-in-the-walls problem. When the wind blows really hard, it shakes loose some of the mold, and my eyes feel like I have been sprayed by mace. (Reason #2 that I am awake).
I promise that, if the weather ever gets calm enough for me to get out and take some pictures, you will see how much snow we are getting. There are several houses in the village that have so much snow next to them that you can walk right up onto the roof. We need about another foot to be able to walk onto ours without having to jump a little. Kids have been climbing up and sledding off roofs in the village. You are probably wondering why the kids are out playing in such horrible weather. To them, as long as the wind is below about 25mph and the temp is above -10, the weather is fine for playing. Their parents let them go out in all sorts of mess that my mother would have a stroke if I went out in even now. And some of them aren't dressed for the weather. Now, I am not talking about having baggies on your hands and bread sacks on your feet like we did when it snowed when we were kids. (If you don't get that, you aren't old enough). I see kids out playing in the snow with just sweatshirts and jeans. Not bad if you are only going to be out in snow like we have or for a few minutes, but this is ALASKA.
I had a boy who wanted to shovel the porch to make some money to take with him to the regional basketball tournament (before you think we have a great team, EVERY team goes to a regional tournament because there are so few teams out here). I had him come in and eat something about half-way through. He wasn't wearing any socks. I asked him where his socks were. He said he didn't want to mess them up. I gave him a pair of socks to wear (not those crazy patterned socks I always wear, but real winter socks). Can you imagine going out to shovel snow with no socks? He isn't the first kid I have seen with no socks in this kind of weather. Kids come by all the time wanting to visit--it's a big deal for them to get to come inside "teacher housing" and see what it's like--and a lot of times they have no socks on.(In Alaska, you take your shoes off when you enter someone's home.) I can't even imagine going without socks in the fall, but this is the middle of winter, for heaven's sake. I try to give them socks to put on when I can.
Wow, this was going to be a rant about the weather, and it turned into something all together different. The wind is still howling, the pitch has gone up a little so that means the speed is up. I certainly hope we have a delayed start this morning. I wouldn't want to be a second or third grader walking a mile to school in this.
I am going to TRY to get a little rest before I have to get up. I won't be going back to sleep, but at least maybe I can let my mind rest a little. I also need to take some allergy medication (which might help in the resting part).
Hoping that tomorrow will be a different day.
Debbie