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General discussion

Over the River and Through the Woods ...

Dec 14, 2003 12:36AM PST

To no place in particular we go.

We had an ice storm last night, so things look quite pretty outside. The roads, however, are a problem in a few places. The larger roads are in great shape but side roads are iffy.

I got up this morning to go to a fellowship group meeting. The roads were OK until I crossed over to Forsyth County, where they were atrocious. The restaurant was closed so I guess there was no fellowship meeting.

We didn't hear anything about church so I rounded up the family and went to church, only to find an empty parking lot and a locked building. I think we need to work on the communication system for the congregation.

The real irony in this is that I had to return a DVD to the movie store. It wasn't far out of the way so we drove by there. It was open.

The final tally: 60+ miles of driving and almost nothing to show for it.

Discussion is locked

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Your storm is coming up here today through tomorrow morning.
Dec 14, 2003 1:16AM PST

Not sure whether we?ll get mostly snow, or ice/snow, or rain on top of all of it.

Frustration for me is that the company might call a ?snow day? tomorrow when I have a very heavy workload and am hoping to do significant overtime this week. And I can?t do my work at home.

Paula

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Re:Your storm is coming up here today through tomorrow morning.
Dec 14, 2003 2:35AM PST

Hi Paula,

What will be most frustrating is if they call the snowday before a flake has fallen, and they never fall. I've had lots of this happen last year with snow -- and I had a class 3 days a week starting at 1:30pm. My school's policy was pretty general -- they would cancel all classes, or afternoon starting at 2:00 pm, etc. A real PITA.

Here's hoping they keep the roads clear and you are able to get in your OT. Just started to snow here within the last 2 hours (didn't look outside for a while LOL). Hoping it turns over to rain and washes away. I'm done for the semester -- early finals this year! -- but I do pity my hubby driving home tonight and to work tomorrow.

Evie Happy

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Re:Over the River and Through the Woods ...
Dec 14, 2003 2:42AM PST

Sorry for your escapade Bill!

When I was a kid my school was always the last on the list to close up shop. Now they call school off at the first flake -- even before -- which really messes with parent's schedules, and the same for most day care, community and church functions. At least the radio stations here are pretty good at announcing cancellations and closings for all sorts of events and meetings. Might want to set up some phone chains for cancellations. This has really helped me with class cancellations because quite often the dept. secretary will take off even before school officially closes leaving me at the mercy of campus security that generally does not have the personel to post cancellation notices. Most of my students commute as well, so they appreciate this too, and don't seem to mind sharing phone numbers for this purpose. It's gotten quite elaborate but down pat by now, where if a person on one branch cannot be reached directly there is a backup and so on so at least everyone gets a message.

Enjoy the day!
Evie Happy

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It turns out that it gets worse ...
Dec 14, 2003 3:12AM PST

We got to the church in time for Sunday School at 10:00 and there was nobody there so we left. We found out a little while ago that there was a service at 11:00.
I've already sent the pastor an email asking for a better method of communicating with the congregation.

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Maybe could look into ...
Dec 14, 2003 4:18AM PST

... setting up a message board. Easier to update than a website and there are lots of free ones out there. If you look one with membership registration, the church can email the entire congregation as well and it will be easier to keep the email list updated. Just a thought. I had a free Yahoo website I used for my students for a while, and updating that wasn't too bad. Only problem was they would get an error if I was in the process of doing that. Instead I set up a message board (the service name is not applicable as it was on a science educator site) that I linked to or the students could go to directly. Worked very well.

Now I have the luxury of a course website through blackboard (www.blackboard.com). It's a nice format cuz it has announcements, chat function, message boards, and places to store all sorts of course documents ... I could see how this platform would work well for a church as areas can be established for various functions (scheduling, religious instruction, community outreach, etc.). I think it's free for two months. I find it easy to learn and use, the site is never down while I'm updating content in other areas, and students of varying computer backgrounds can navigate well. Obviously the online gradebook might be of limited use for the church Happy

Evie Happy

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Thanks. I'm not sure I can talk them into it ...
Dec 14, 2003 6:34AM PST

I had suggested something as simple as cancellations.com as an option for the church but the response was that they didn't think anybody would use that sort of electronic resource.

It's not that the congregation is techno-illiterate. We have fairly sophisticated multi-media presentations during worship when appropriate. The computers are networked. The bookkeeper can access the system from home. I don't know why they don't want to adopt this sort of technology.

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Re:Over the River and Through the Woods ...
Dec 14, 2003 3:14AM PST

I've just returned from a 2 week trip to PA I made for the company where I was treated to a foot of snow. It made for an interesting ride on the weekend there when I traveled 100 miles into the mountains to visit an old friend. There to the main roads were no bad but the side roads were reserved for the adventurous Wink

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Was wondering how bad it was there, here in the eastern area
Dec 14, 2003 4:55AM PST

We're only got to worry about floating away. Forecasts yesterday were for 2 to 4 inches between Saturday evening and Monday morning.

Rain started sometime after midnight I think. But it rained hard most of the time after that. When I came home between 6:30 and 7 this morning, it was raining hard and ditches everywhere were backing up and over 3/4 full. My yard had standing water everywhere.

I was up till about 9 watching/listening to the news from Iraq. It rain the entire time, and often very hard. Right now it appears that has been slacked off for long enough for the front yard to drain down to the ditch anyway, even if the ditches are still backed up.

Ya'll can have the snow as well as the even worst ice. I've gotten to point I dispise snow. Even a little bit is a real pain if you have to go work on a conveyor 50 feet up at 3 am. A hundred odd metal steps coated in snow and ice are no fun at all.

roger

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I don't particularly like the ice either ...
Dec 14, 2003 6:36AM PST

We didn't get snow. We got a little sleet and a lot of freezing rain. I'd rather have snow than freezing rain any day.

Oh well, they say it's supposed to disappear pretty quickly. I hope so.