While at work yesterday people were talking about how cold it's going to be Monday and Tuesday. I didn't really pay a lot of attention to it. I mean, we're in Wisconsin. It gets pretty cold in the winter. Plus people at work complain when it's in the 30's outside. It's not like I enjoy it but still, if you live here you have to expect such things, ya know? Lately it has been below zero. The lowest it has been is -18°. However, when the chatter about the weather for Monday and Tuesday continued and seemed to sound concerned rather than just complaining I thought it would be a good idea to look into it. Master and I don't have cable or satellite so obviously we don't watch the weather channel. Instead I rely on weather.com.
It's an acceptable thing to look at while at work so when I had about 15 minutes left in my shift I went there and took a peek. My jaw dropped. It's supposed to be a minimum of -40° to -55° starting really late Sunday night and going through Tuesday at noon. They are saying that it will cause frostbite in a very short period of time and can be life threatening.
I know it's Wisconsin but holy fucking shit! They are saying it's been about a 18 years since this last happened. Well 18 years ago I was 12 and therefore did not have a job. So I didn't have to really worry about it. I just stayed inside.
The surrounding counties have already stated that schools will be closed Monday. They haven't decided about Tuesday yet, and the governor has stated that they may close all of the schools in Wisconsin. That is fucking insane.
On the way home from work yesterday I told the passenger in my carpool about it. He honestly looked at me and said, "You're lying." I said, "No I'm not. You can look it up."
He seriously thought I was kidding. When he realized that I was being completely serious he started talking about how our office should shut down too because seriously, you could get frostbite just trying to go to work in the morning or even get hypothermia, which weather.com has said as well. I agreed when him. He said it would be absolute utter bullshit if the office did decide to be open.
The problem is we have a phone number to call to see if the office is still open. It is an automated message. And when we had a blizzard a couple years ago where we literally could not get out of the door of our apartment I called that number a dozen times while somewhat freaking out because like I said my job is a bastard when it comes to getting to work on time let alone getting there at all.
I alternated between trying to get a hold of HR or my supervisor explaining that I couldn't even get out the door. No one was answering. And so I continued to call the number to see if the office was even open. Finally, at 9am they had changed the automated message stating that the office was closed due to "winter weather conditions". But until then I was freaking out because I didn't want to lose my job.
Yes, it's different not being able to get out your door and it being so cold people are stating that if you are outside for more than 10 minutes you can get frostbite and/or hypothermia.
It takes me longer than 15 minutes to get my car cleared off and warmed up enough to leave for work. Not really warm, just warm enough to start going to work. Not to mention taking the dog out first. So add another 10 to 15 minutes there. Now you're talking a full 30 minutes of being outside in that shit. Also, my car might not even start if it's that fucking cold. We don't have a garage. The car is just in an open parking lot.
It's also a 45 minute drive to work. So if by some miracle my car does start up and I haven't frozen to death by that point the car could choke out at any point on the way to work due to the cold and then I'm stuck in my car with no heat until I can get help of some kind. (Such as a cop car or an ambulance.)
This isn't me being a pussy about the cold. These are facts. They have even made it so city workers aren't going to be outside. No mail. No garbage pick up service. Nothing.
On the one hand if the office for some fucking reason decides that they will still be open I don't want to lose my job or get written up for not coming in. On the other hand I don't want to end up in the hospital with frostbite or hypothermia. There isn't a lot to me people! I'm petite and don't really have a lot of meat on my bones.
I won't really be able to make a decision or find out if the office is open until Monday morning.
Master has always told me that my health comes first, so we'll see what happens and how it goes.
I'm not going to freak out about it until we get there. There isn't any point in doing so. I want to enjoy my weekend after all.
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