I must say...I knew from the beginning that this week would not be my greatest. I was right! I know that no one wants a play-by-play of my daily routine. Heck, I don't want a play-by-play and it's my life and routine! But let me give you an idea of the start of the week.
My boss woke me up at 5:38am on Monday. I think I jumped about 3 feet when my phone went off Monday morning. It's been a very long time since I've gotten texts in the middle of the night or in the early morning. So usually if I'm getting a text at that hour, something is up. And something was definitely was up. A pipe was broken at work. The heat was holding but we didn't know for how long though. So my boss and I talked until about 6:25am I think trying to decide what to do. But we came to the conclusion that we would wait. The guys that work on it would be there probably sometime after 7:30am to see what was going on. So we waited. I got to work and could tell it was a little colder than normal but we wanted to see what the guys were going to say. So I did my normal run taking the kids to school. And when I got back, we knew we had a problem. It was 54 in one of our rooms. There was cold air coming out of the vent in our office. And it was 59 in the nursery. So we grabbed a small heater for the nursery hoping that would help. We moved several other classrooms to other rooms in the building that seemed a little warmer. And then we made the tentative decision to close at noon. It just wasn't safe for the kids to be in there. So we started calling all of our parents. About half way through, we got the news that things were fixed and the temp was starting to go up. So we called all of those parents back and let them know what was going on and that we weren't closing. OK. Things would be fine.
HA HA HA!!! I was sitting at my desk and I kept telling Christina that I was colder than I was before. But my desk is by the window so maybe that was it. Then one of girls came in and said that they're room didn't seem to be getting any warmer. So we tried something, gave it a half hour and realized that the temps were dropping again. So we called all of the parents again and made an announcement on the tv and radio stations. We were closing at 3:30.
Tuesday had to be better right????? No one woke me up at 5:38am!!! It was like 5:50am this time. Something didn't seem right with the heat. But by 6:10, it was ok and things were warming up and everything was good. HA HA HA!!! I had straightened one section of my hair when my phone rang. And Christina said, "How quickly can you get to work?" (She lives farther out than I did. It takes her about 25 minutes to get to work. It takes me about 3 minutes.) Our power had gone out at work. WHAT??? At this point you just kind of had to laugh. Really. All I knew at this point was there was a fire downtown and some places had lost power. OK. And of course, the poor kids were freaking out. So I threw my hair up in a ponytail, threw some clothes on and headed out the door. I called an employee who I knew could get in quickly and help. And my 3 minute trip took almost 10 minutes. Traffic was a mess. And I could see the smoke. I got to work and was told that a business downtown was on fire. It was a pretty big fire. And we had no one had long the power would be out. So we closed. There was no power. And naturally no heat. We had no choice. So we were turning away parents as they pulled in. And we were calling parents for the kids who were already there. And trying to keep the kids calm. Once we got them calm, it wasn't too bad. Just extremely busy. The power did come back on before our last kids left but we were told they weren't sure how long it would be before it was turned back off and since the temps were so low in the building, we knew it would be awhile before the building was warm. So I was out of work by 10:30am. And most of our girls didn't get any hours in for the day.
The hardest part of closing is knowing that so many parents have no other alternatives for their kids. Of course, everyone was wonderful. There was nothing we could do. But it is frustrating to us. We're always open. Daycares don't close. Just doesn't happen like schools. The second hardest part is our girls. Most of them lost a few hours on Mon. and the majority of them didn't get any hours on Tues. Money is tight for everyone. It's even tighter when your girls are just barely making minimum wage. Plus we had just been off for Christmas break. Ugh.
I did try to make the best of my day though (I don't take too many days off). And a friend and I spent the day playing around!! It was fun. I'm sure when I see my paycheck, I would have wished we had worked. But I'm glad I got the day to play and be carefree for a few hours. I can't argue with that!!!
We managed to finish the week out like normal. It was just tons of little things here and there that just seemed to add up. And by Friday, it was clear we all needed some time off. 28 women working together isn't always the best thing. Especially when the week starts the way ours did. Don't get me wrong. I love the girls I work with. Sometimes though...we just all need some time away from each other. That was clear on Friday.
So I'm glad to have the day today to myself...quiet. I didn't like the cleaning part but I wanted to get it done. Now I'm just going to relax. Texts some friends. Cook dinner and watch some movies. And I'm going to pray that this coming Monday starts off way better than this past Monday!!!
My boss woke me up at 5:38am on Monday. I think I jumped about 3 feet when my phone went off Monday morning. It's been a very long time since I've gotten texts in the middle of the night or in the early morning. So usually if I'm getting a text at that hour, something is up. And something was definitely was up. A pipe was broken at work. The heat was holding but we didn't know for how long though. So my boss and I talked until about 6:25am I think trying to decide what to do. But we came to the conclusion that we would wait. The guys that work on it would be there probably sometime after 7:30am to see what was going on. So we waited. I got to work and could tell it was a little colder than normal but we wanted to see what the guys were going to say. So I did my normal run taking the kids to school. And when I got back, we knew we had a problem. It was 54 in one of our rooms. There was cold air coming out of the vent in our office. And it was 59 in the nursery. So we grabbed a small heater for the nursery hoping that would help. We moved several other classrooms to other rooms in the building that seemed a little warmer. And then we made the tentative decision to close at noon. It just wasn't safe for the kids to be in there. So we started calling all of our parents. About half way through, we got the news that things were fixed and the temp was starting to go up. So we called all of those parents back and let them know what was going on and that we weren't closing. OK. Things would be fine.
HA HA HA!!! I was sitting at my desk and I kept telling Christina that I was colder than I was before. But my desk is by the window so maybe that was it. Then one of girls came in and said that they're room didn't seem to be getting any warmer. So we tried something, gave it a half hour and realized that the temps were dropping again. So we called all of the parents again and made an announcement on the tv and radio stations. We were closing at 3:30.
Tuesday had to be better right????? No one woke me up at 5:38am!!! It was like 5:50am this time. Something didn't seem right with the heat. But by 6:10, it was ok and things were warming up and everything was good. HA HA HA!!! I had straightened one section of my hair when my phone rang. And Christina said, "How quickly can you get to work?" (She lives farther out than I did. It takes her about 25 minutes to get to work. It takes me about 3 minutes.) Our power had gone out at work. WHAT??? At this point you just kind of had to laugh. Really. All I knew at this point was there was a fire downtown and some places had lost power. OK. And of course, the poor kids were freaking out. So I threw my hair up in a ponytail, threw some clothes on and headed out the door. I called an employee who I knew could get in quickly and help. And my 3 minute trip took almost 10 minutes. Traffic was a mess. And I could see the smoke. I got to work and was told that a business downtown was on fire. It was a pretty big fire. And we had no one had long the power would be out. So we closed. There was no power. And naturally no heat. We had no choice. So we were turning away parents as they pulled in. And we were calling parents for the kids who were already there. And trying to keep the kids calm. Once we got them calm, it wasn't too bad. Just extremely busy. The power did come back on before our last kids left but we were told they weren't sure how long it would be before it was turned back off and since the temps were so low in the building, we knew it would be awhile before the building was warm. So I was out of work by 10:30am. And most of our girls didn't get any hours in for the day.
The hardest part of closing is knowing that so many parents have no other alternatives for their kids. Of course, everyone was wonderful. There was nothing we could do. But it is frustrating to us. We're always open. Daycares don't close. Just doesn't happen like schools. The second hardest part is our girls. Most of them lost a few hours on Mon. and the majority of them didn't get any hours on Tues. Money is tight for everyone. It's even tighter when your girls are just barely making minimum wage. Plus we had just been off for Christmas break. Ugh.
I did try to make the best of my day though (I don't take too many days off). And a friend and I spent the day playing around!! It was fun. I'm sure when I see my paycheck, I would have wished we had worked. But I'm glad I got the day to play and be carefree for a few hours. I can't argue with that!!!
We managed to finish the week out like normal. It was just tons of little things here and there that just seemed to add up. And by Friday, it was clear we all needed some time off. 28 women working together isn't always the best thing. Especially when the week starts the way ours did. Don't get me wrong. I love the girls I work with. Sometimes though...we just all need some time away from each other. That was clear on Friday.
So I'm glad to have the day today to myself...quiet. I didn't like the cleaning part but I wanted to get it done. Now I'm just going to relax. Texts some friends. Cook dinner and watch some movies. And I'm going to pray that this coming Monday starts off way better than this past Monday!!!
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