It's just another day in Siberia, but I can't wait for spring

We have had the snowiest year in over 20 years according to the local weather experts.

And the saddest part is that they want more. It is difficult now to find a place to put the snow that is taken off the streets, parking lots and sidewalks.

As of Feb. 1, most of the cities and the Utah Department of Transportation have spent their entire budget for the year on snow removal. Now the weather gurus are saying Lake Mead and Lake Powell will dry up soon.

Well how can that happen when the snow level is already 150 percent of normal with two months left to go? You can bet I don't know. So what does this all prove? It proves I'm getting a snow blower next year.

I'm sure glad I haven't had to drive a truck through all this. Getting to the local schools is a piece of cake, even if finding a parking place isn't. I had a three-day sub job at the local high school during state testing. For the first two hours of the day all I had to do was hang out in the hallway with two other teachers and make sure the non-testing students (seniors) did not use the hallways. With seniors not showing up until 9:30 a.m. parking was a breeze.

However, on the last day I was actually late to class trying to find a place to park because testing was over. I should add that many of the parking spots have been taken up with ever increasing piles of snow. The plus factor of that subbing job was that it is in the auto shop. And these kids were interested in cars like you wouldn't believe. I was here because the teacher had taken some students on a long field trip to California, the other end, not the good end up here. They were going to visit the Toyota factory, Boyd Coddington's work shop and the Peterson Car Museum (the scene of the chrome, as the ad goes). So we watched DVDs on muscle cars and I brought one in on body repairs that was put out by Hot Rod Magazine. Then I spent two classes at the same high school so the teachers could take a field trip to the Syracuse Water Treatment Plant (it could make for a lot of disgusting jokes).

However, they were just taking samples in the creeks below the plant, not from the spoils within. The first class was chemistry and the second was biology. I met with both teachers before they left and Mrs. Bourgeois, the bio teacher, pointed out on the seating chart which students I would have trouble with. It's always nice to get a heads up. However, she needn't have bothered, the student stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. I gave him three chances before booting him out, and there were two or three more who deserved it, too.

However, I have some latitude for students being butt-heads (I was a butt-head in high school too). But nobody warned me about the chemistry students. I really didn't expect any bad attitudes in such a class. You get them a lot in required bone-head-type-subjects, but this was an elective for supposedly college-bound students, or so I was led to believe. Between the two classes I was about ready to turn in my badge.

The next day I started coming down sick, so I'm assuming the disease wore me down as much as the kids. I have been spending a lot of time in the garage with a heater going. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised to come down with an upper-respiratory infection. However, I waited awhile to be sure it was not just a cold. I waited long enough for it to turn into bronchitis, thus needing a strong anti-biotic. But the VA clinic is close and the doctor was in, so I've been hanging around the house trying to get well. I didn't even bother to shovel the driveway after the last storm. I can't wait for spring.