The kids are back in school

Thank-you Dr. DeFrance (Eaton Rapids Public School Superintendent).

Belladonna was absolutely sure school would be called off today.  The roads were slushy yesterday evening and we had -12 F windchills which she was sure would seal-the-deal by turning the slush to ice.

The Supe calls school off if he cannot get our of his driveway.  If he can get out of his driveway and has any questions about the weather, he directs the Directer of the bus garage to drive "The Route".  "The Route" is a fifteen mile circuit of city streets, state maintained roads and rural roads that include both E-W and N-S  and a mix of open and wooded surroundings.

The Director of the bus garage might determine at any point in the circuit that school is a NOGO.  At that point she will call the Supe and he will push The Red Button.

The last people to hear that school has been called off are the High School Seniors who are busy shoveling snow into Dr. DeFrance's home driveway.  They still have not figured out that he looks at the weather the night before and leaves home before 4:00 AM.

Boston Terriers

He is staying in the house today.  The door flap was quickly shredded by the big dogs.

We tried one of those stupid doggy overcoats.  The big dogs ripped it off of him quicker than businessmen peel parkas off of exotic dancers on dollar day.

Running power over the the dog house is not a possibility due to traffic issues.

Racoons

The Captain called me the other day and told me that he suspects Distemper in the neighborhood.  He ran across a racoon that was not right.  It was in an open, picked corn field in broad daylight and it was aimlessly turning in a tight circle.  He put it down.

Canine Distemper is similar enough to the Human Measles virus that the vaccines of either confer mutual protection.  I wonder how much contact would be necessary for Canine Distemper to make the jump to humans.

An even larger concern is rabies.  Rabies is endemic in racoons in Ohio but has not been seen in Michigan.  The thing about racoons is that they frequent loading docks and trash dumpsters.  It is easy to envision a sick racoon hitching a ride on a truck or in the back of a boat and landing 200 miles away from the point of origin.