Ice Storm 2009!

As I’m sure most of you know, (or maybe some of you don’t, which is completely cool, because that means this blog will be ALL the more interesting =D), Kentucky was kind of pummeled by a nasty ice storm a couple of weeks ago.

The concept of a “snow day,” or getting out of class for any reason, is kind of a joke at Transy, given that it’s a whopping 5 minute walk to the furthest academic building from residential side (and you can cut that down to 2-3 with a good pair of tennis shoes!). But on Tuesday of this fateful week, Transylvania students checked “Columns,” our daily updated website to give us campus news, to find out that classes after 1:30 had been canceled. Facebook was on the brink of overheating with status updates like “WHAT?! Class canceled!? No Way!” and “________ doesn’t know what to do with herself” or “SNOOOOOOOOOOOOW DAAAY!” …You get the drift. It was a big deal.

The ice continued to fall throughout the night followed by a heavy snow on Wednesday morning. Transy students, 19-22 years olds, turned into kids again and could be seen playing out in the ice all over campus. All classes were canceled Wednesday, as the ice made it dangerous to brave even a 3 minute walk to class and even more dangerous for professors to make the drive in the first place. One of our residence halls lost power, so everyone piled into the cafeteria for lunch and a good time.

It was really cool to see practically the whole campus together enjoying their day off of school, and it was fun to play around in the snow a little, but for me, it began to get old quickly. Later that night, for example, I had to brave a walk to the library (the BEST place to study on campus, hands down) to work on my ever increasing mound of homework, and Lexington had to shut down power on academic side because they had a transformer on fire somewhere. I was ready for it to be over.

I know I have been slacking on my blog a bit—I’ll explain that possibly later. But today, I watched as the last piles of snow melted under the blanket of 60 degree whether, I watched as coats came off, and thought I’d recap the storm before spring rolled around. All this reminds me of a poem…

Cold Spring
The last few gray sheets of snow are gone,
winter’s scraps and leavings lowered
to a common level. A sudden jolt
of weather pushed us outside, and now
this larger world once again belongs to us.
I stand at the edge of it, beside the house,
listening to the stream we haven’t heard
since fall, and I imagine one day thinking
back to this hour and blaming myself
for my worries, my foolishness, today’s choices
having become the accomplished
facts of change, accepted
or forgotten. The woods are a mangle
of lines, yet delicate, yet precise,
when I take the time to look closely.
If I’m not happy it must be my own fault.
At the edge of the lawn my wife
bends down to uncover a flower, then another.
The first splurge of crocuses.
And for a moment the sweep and shudder
of the wind seems indistinguishable
from the steady furl of water
just beyond her.
-Lawrence Raab