We are south of Houston and they just closed our school district tomorrow but not our work. They did say they may not open the cafeteria (Grrr). I don’t think we are really supposed to get anything this far south. @Mommyof2girls my S17 just went back to school in Kansas and is freezing right now (moved into the frat house yesterday and did a habitat for humanity house with them today!) He was born and raised in southern Texas!
My D18’s friends are going to UChi and UMich next year. They were complaining last week about the cold. In Arizona. They are in for a RUDE awakening come November next year.
Wow @apraxiamom, congratulations on the decision! That’s just terrific that you both felt so strongly. On another note, I thought that was really interesting that the school interviewed a parent as well as the student. I take this as them recognizing your role in raising your son and continuing to support him while he gets his education, and I say how nice is that.
@lovespink I’m so happy for you that a great decision came in, and especially so quickly after yesterday’s bad news. It’s wonderful to have a win. And congratulations to you too @katstat1 for Purdue!
@burghdad you must be so proud. Thanks for raising such a great kid!
Oh my @amominaz, yes, they are!
Well over here in AL we have a state of emergency for a 40 percent chance of up to one inch of snow. Having lived in a northern state where we regularly had 8 to 12 inch storms, I have to smile. That didn’t prevent me from going to the grocery store with everyone else here today, though, because with no sanders, the roads could actually be impassable for several days.
Congratulations everyone! Miss a day, miss a lot here 
We rarely close. We had wind chills down to -20 the other week and we delayed, but didn’t close. The superintendent got into hot water for that one, and made it worse by saying the kids who need free/reduced lunch wouldn’t eat without school. That is a consideration for sure, but the way he said it po’d a lot of people.
My teen driver is very cautious, but I worry with her driving to school the way they keep the roads here. We got three inches of snow yesterday (off for MLK day) and until people started complaining on Facebook there were no plows in sight. My DD had to go to training at the hospital and came home a bit shaky … even an invincible teen was using choice words to describe the streets. I went out later and it was still terrible. So here it really depends where you live. Cross the county line and conditions are much different.
No word yet on a delay today. They closed Friday because of ice, so it’s been a four day weekend here. Not complaining; it sort of made up for a yucky winter break due to wisdom teeth surgery.
Central Texas here - every district called a snow day by 5:30 last night.
The local HEB was a freaking zoo, shelves were cleared, one would think it was going to be a week long storm.
Alas, while its cold and very windy, the roads are completely clear. My employer follows the school district and is closed today but its the end of the year, I’m the accounting manager, so here I sit (in my jammies) at my desk, working on the final year end entries while the rest of the community is lounging in front of the fire!
I admit, I stayed in bed until 11 - two cats, a very large dog and a fluffy down comforter…snuggle time is a blessing
I’ve lived in snow country - here we don’t have the resources or experience, shutting everything down appears silly but the cities, schools and citizens really are not equipped for something that occurs every few years.
I braved HEB yesterday too and yup ZOO doesn’t even come close! Our cars are covered in ice and the roads in our subdivision are icey too (SW of Austin). The dog was freaking out because the grass crunched every time he but a paw down. Enough of winter already!
Agree with @SnowflakeDogMom. I grew up in northern Pennsylvania and also lived in Newfoundland, Canada. I’m no stranger to winter driving but I’m not mocking the Houston area for shutting down schools and businesses today. In fact I’m quite thankful that my son, who has zero winter driving experience, doesn’t have to leave the house today. I wouldn’t even want to drive him anywhere myself let alone have him try to drive in this. I don’t doubt MY winter driving ability but I do doubt the ability of almost every other driver around here!
So we are in the same winter state here in TN. Schools closed, but I am at work. One thing in the south with winter weather is that it will snow, but then warm enough to melt it, then freeze as the temperatures drop into the night. Add icy roads to mountains, and driving can be treacherous with minimum precipitation.
The snow has become steady now, so I will need to get home soon! Raised in Miami, not trained for snow…
This. ^^ I learned to drive in Michigan. I remember being in Memphis when the city was hit with a surprise 6+ inches of snow. Me, I was fine to drive in it but the city was ill equipped to deal with it overall because of how rarely that amount happens.
I was driving to work super slowly when I saw a car on the side of the road stuck in its own ruts. The driver was at the the far end of his own tracks, spinning the wheels trying to get out. For the warm weather folks, once you’ve lost traction like that, spinning the wheels doesn’t get you anywhere. It just turns the snow to ice, which is even worse.
I was around 20 or 21, clad in my waitress outfit. I went up, knocked on the window, said I was from Michigan and did the driver want help? He did.
I asked if he had a bag of sand or rock salt in the trunk. He didn’t.
Me: OK, back up a few feet. Take the floor mats out and put one at the end of each rut under the drive wheels. Slowly drive over the floormats to get unstuck, then pick them back up when you’re clear. Make sure you turn a little at the end of the rut to break the crust, and don’t spin the wheels; it makes ice.
He did as I suggested and got himself free.
He was a 45 year old cop driving a cop car. 
I can only imagine how hard it is to clear the roads without the heavy duty equipment and excessive salter/sander trucks that we have. We’ve had ice here in the northeast and if temps are too cold you can’t really treat the roads…I think ice is much much worse than snow any day. Glad the schools used an abundance of caution, especially with all the young drivers out there.
Stay safe everyone, especially those not used to these super chilly temps and nasty driving conditions!
Congratulations @burghdad. That’s the kind of stuff that really matters.
Congratulations on the Perdue acceptances. Great school!!
Congratulations @apraxiamom. Hope to be in your shoes one day, happy with the decision
And around here there’s the additional overconfidence that sometimes comes from owners of very large trucks and SUVs. I have no desire to share the roads with those drivers today.
@DiotimaDM - GRINNING ear to ear! Cute story,!
I get upset at people still tailgating in this. Leave some extra room please.
Yes, we have had some extreme weather changes. Rain and 60 on Friday, cooling down to 30s that night and freezing rain, then snow.
Then on Saturday it was in the teens and sunny, cooling down to single digits at night. Mid teens and sunny on Sunday and Monday. Today it’s in the 20s and snowing.
I think in the winter 20s are my favorite temperature. Then the precipitation is snow, and it’s warm enough for the salt to work.
I’m getting very stressed about finding time to revisit schools. We are essentially not driving distance to 8/10 schools. And since S18 is 3 sport athlete, we have big constraints on visiting. Plus his school doesn’t like them to miss time. Ugh. Anyone else worrying about this? He still has 10 schools in play. Blech.
S will get a five day weekend! A hard freeze is predicted tonight, and combined with all the wet roads and no salt or sand capabilities I guess driving will be pretty dicey tomorrow morning. Once again it appears that nearly all the Houston area schools are closing. Now I wonder what they will do to make up the days. I think S’s district used up all its allotted weather days during hurricane Harvey. S doesn’t care that he might have to pay the piper later though; he’s pretty happy to have another day off!
Wow, they just closed our school district too and we are south of Houston. Work did close today and is opening at 9 tomorrow. It was nice teleworking today with my pup. S17 said it snowed at K State last night and there has been snow on the ground since he got there. He said it was really icy today but school started anyway.
We are closed again tomorrow too. @traveler98 it is my understanding that they did not count the days for Harvey because it was declared a national disaster. (At least our school district)
@labegg That is correct. The state waived the Harvey days. But I don’t know when these days will be made up.