Cancelled

Everything has been pretty much closed/cancelled all weekend. Yesterday was even a snow day from church. The cancellations started Friday evening and continue on through today at least. Saturday, banks, libraries, and even malls closed early. What was really amazing and as far as I know, completely unheard of was that they shut down the Grand Rapids city busses. But Meijers, stayed open the whole time and, being the only thing open, were very busy. Busses were up and running again yesterday but area churches were all pretty much closed including ours. Now there are over 400 area schools and businesses still closed today, including the kids'.
The sun is out and it really looks nice out side. Problem is that the air temp is -8 and wind chills are running -15 to -25. Even though snow plows have been working continously all weekend, the wind didn't settle down to stop the blowing and drifting till today. The temps are so cold that salt is useless to help with clearing the ice. Most of our roads are covered with packed snow and a layer of ice underneath. Even the interstates are only moving at about 25-30 mph. The closings of highways because of multicar accidents has been numerous, including on Saturday, a 10 mile stretch because of 2 different accidents--one involving around 25 cars and another involving 30. Fortunately, the accidents have not included much for injuries.
I did venture out for work on Saturday and Sunday, but other than that the family has pretty much hibernated for the weekend. Today, it is Mark's turn to venture out. With no heat in the van, Mark is even doing our errands on his lunch or on his way home from work. I'm not taking the kids in that van any where. I don't even know if the van would start right now. We haven't started it since Thursday.
I seriously considered calling in on Saturday but they were pretty desperate for workers. Then I made my team leader's day on Sunday. Since we were so far behind and since our church was closed, I offered to do an 8 hour shift instead of just the 4 I was scheduled. She jumped at it! The extra money will be nice too.
Since the schools were already closed for Monday, we let them stay up and watch all of the Super Bowl last night. Mark actually let the Super Bowl for them start at around noon with all of the football specials and pregame. I told them it was a good thing that I was at work or else it would not have started till at least 5 p.m. Stephen was cheering for the Bears so he was a bit disappointed by the game. The rest of the family was going for the Colts, however. I said that I had to go for the Colts since they were lead by Peyton MANNING. I know that there were Mannings on the Bears too but, somehow, I think we have a better chance of being related (distantly) to Peyton than the ones on the Bears.
Well, there is a lot to get done around here. And I have some children with lots of energy and no way to burn it off. (They did go out and shovel for a while yesterday but can't have them do that today with this windchill.) I think I need to find some productive ways to harness it. Somehow, I don't think they are going to appreciate the ways I can find to take care of energy.