January and February 2022 pretty much had it all, and most of it was bad. March isn't any better, and in some ways, it's even worse. Could we get out of this alternate timeline and go back to a more normal world? Maybe someday...
As the year began, the Omicron wave was building into its peak. I continued to double-mask at school, and I got lessons ready two weeks in advance in case I fell ill. I didn't get sick, but I didn't know that I wouldn't. It was so hard to keep everything ready for two weeks in advance. I am still trying to stay ahead by at least one week while aiming for two.
School was closed on January 14 because of the surge in cases. That was the first snow day we used, and we had just two snow days built into the calendar.
School was closed on February 2, 3, and 4 due to a winter storm which resulted in around five inches of snow. Those days closed were also snow days, so we had used two more days than we had been allotted. We will use an alternate plan to make up the extra days, so we will soon begin to add time to each school day.
The three-day closure impacted a test, which messed that up quite well. I wasn't otherwise concerned about the closure and shifting everything around, but having it impact a test was a problem. I wasn't concerned about the upcoming book sale, although I should have been. Meanwhile...
On February 13, I received a snarky message from a member of a group that I manage on Facebook. This person was unhappy that a post had been declined. They made a point to look at all of my old posts in the group, as they had done before, to find something to use against me. They quoted an old post of mine back at me and added some snarky comments and emojis to get their message across.
This message was not the first one of its type that had been sent to me. I handed the situation to the other moderators and had them deal with it. Even so, I took quite a hit and had a bit of an autoimmune flare the week of February 13.
Friday, February 25 was the scheduled date for the beginning of the 2022 Friends of the Library Book Sale in Oklahoma City. The sale was not held in 2021 because of the pandemic. 2021 was the only year that the sale was skipped since its inception.
The 2020 Friends of the Library Book Sale
Several times in the last two years, I have mentioned my belief that the books that would have been donated to the library book sale were instead going to local bookstores.
Where Are the Books?
In the above post, I showed off some vintage teen books that I purchased in a local store, books that would have been at the 2021 library book sale if they had been taking donations and if they had held that sale.
I have found far more vintage teen books in local stores during the last year than I normally do, and I'm certain that many of them would have found their way to the library book sale during normal times.
After we got past the winter storm that impacted school on February 2, 3, and 4, everything began to settle back down. As I mentioned, I wasn't worried about the library book sale. Even if there were a snow or ice event, it wouldn't be a big deal at the end of February. No worries.
During the week of February 13, chatter began about a possible winter storm the week of February 20. Oh, surely not. But if so, it wouldn't be a problem, not near the end of February. By February 20, the local media were hyping it up to get higher ratings. The forecast amounts were low enough that I didn't think that the impact would be that great.
I was still somewhat concerned, however. By Tuesday, February 22, I knew we were going to get some sleet, but I thought that it wouldn't impact roads past Thursday, February 24. We were supposed to get a trace to perhaps one-half inch of sleet. Temperatures were expected to begin warming up.
I was more concerned about school, since I had another test scheduled. I decided that it would be okay if we missed school on Wednesday and were open again on Thursday. I came up with a doable plan if school were closed on Wednesday and Thursday. School shouldn't be closed for more than two days, since we weren't supposed to get much and temperatures would begin warming.
We ended up getting a lot more sleet than was forecast, and it was colder than forecast. The central part of the Oklahoma City metro ended up with 1 1/2 to 2 inches of sleet which then compacted into a thick sheet of ice covering all surfaces. It simply would not melt due to very cold temperatures. Since we had already used up our snow days, the district pivoted to remote learning for February 23, 24, and 25, which of course screwed up the scheduled test and destroyed all my plans.
I was so stressed that week. I was worried about the test that ended up being postponed into the following week. I knew that students weren't going to do well because of the delay. I was concerned about the book sale. I knew that they couldn't cancel it. The people running the book sale said that it would go on regardless, because the books were in place and the building would go to someone else for the next week.
I hoped that the sleet would begin melting on Thursday, but it didn't. The main roads were not too bad to drive on by that point, but all secondary roads were sheets of ice as well as all parking lots that hadn't been plowed.
On my Facebook page, I announced that I was closing my eBay and Etsy stores for a few days so that I wouldn't have to go to the post office. I knew that I was going to make it to the book sale regardless, but I wanted to avoid anything extra.
I have no problem driving on ice. I have rather new tires, since I had all four tires replaced in September after I popped a tire. The tires were close to wearing out, so it was logical to replace all of them instead of just one. I also knew that my decision meant that I would have good traction on ice during the upcoming winter season.
My concern about driving on ice, which is why I limit it as much as possible, is that I cannot control what other drivers do. Some people think that they can drive as normal and pull right out in front of another vehicle, not realizing that the other driver cannot stop on the ice. I try to stay home when roads are icy as much as possible so that I am not endangered by those drivers.
That I was going to the book sale was never in question. I was going, no matter what. The fairgrounds are 12 miles away from my home. In normal driving conditions, the trip takes around 20 minutes.
The start time of the sale was supposed to be 9 AM, but it was changed to 10 AM because of the roads. I felt that the start time should have been delayed to 1 PM. I didn't think many people would be there at the start time, and I would have preferred to have left later in the morning.
Nevertheless, I was going, and I was leaving very early since I couldn't be sure how early the diehards would show up. I can't remember exactly when I left, but it was probably around 7:20 AM. I reached the fairgrounds by around 7:50 AM.
My neighborhood was quite icy, but I got out of it fine. The main roads were partially iced, but they weren't a problem. The most trouble I had in my journey was at the fairgrounds. The ice had not been removed from most of the parking lots. Once I entered the fairgrounds and began driving across the pavement, the car's low traction warning light came on. I could tell that the tires had almost no traction on the ice. I was going around 10 mph, so I made it okay, and I soon reached an area with better traction. Finally, I made it to a parking space right in front of the building. There was hardly anyone there, which was not surprising.
The library sale was odd this year. The sale was extremely short on volunteers. Many volunteers had dropped because of covid fears, and many more had dropped because of the ice. They did not have anywhere near enough volunteers.
I was third in line, which was the closest I had ever been to being first in line. The lack of volunteers resulted in the belt barriers not being placed correctly. Some people moved them, and later, the person in charge of the entire sale got everything set right for our section.
The lack of volunteers meant that the sale was quite short on cashiers. We were told that we would be on the honor system. We were given tally slips and told to figure out our own totals. Many books were still in boxes in the outer lobby since not enough volunteers had shown up that week.
I will publish a separate post showing the books that I purchased at the sale. I could tell that the library had received far fewer donations than usual. I had suspected that would be the case. Remember that I believed that the books were probably going to local stores.
The library sale always overwhelmingly consists of library discards. After all, it is a library sale. I don't know what percent of the books are usually library discards, but let's say 75% of them are. At this year's sale, I would say that 90% of the books were library discards. The sale had about as many books as usual, but the books were two years' worth of library discards.
This meant that the books I most wanted to see at the sale simply were not there. The old series books were almost completely absent. They were never donated and had probably been sold to local stores.
On Saturday, February 26, I went back to the sale to see what I had missed. This resulted in me finding more vintage teen books. The sleet was melting pretty well by that point, but it meant trudging through deep puddles of melted sleet that were trapped by the sleet that hadn't melted.
I found that I was drained by all that had happened during the last full week in February. I began to have a more pronounced autoimmune reaction, which has gotten worse this week. I always have a delayed reaction where I notice the worst symptoms of a flare beginning around two weeks after an event. The library sale was two weeks ago today.
Today is Friday, March 11, which was supposed to be the last day of school before spring break. It is snowing, quite well in fact. We are getting more snow than was forecast, and school is closed again for remote learning. This is the latest in March we have ever been closed due to snow or ice, so this is quite an abnormal event, just like everything else from the last two years. We now have lost eight days of school this semester.
The bright side is that spring break started one day early due to the snow. 10 days at home is exactly what I need.
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