A snowy end

I've felt like this winter hasn't given us major snowstorms. We haven't had a big storm since Thanksgiving.

But we had three storms this week that created problems.

Sundance Institute sends out emails when there is a winter storm warning, letting people work from home. But they often don't do a very good job.

On Monday morning, I kept monitoring my email for a warning email. They had been predicting bad conditions on I-80 all Sunday, and on Monday morning the news showed that it was bad. But there was no email, so I drove to the vanpool site to catch the van up.

Once I got there, I finally saw the email, which they sent out rather late. Obnoxiously, idiotically late, because everyone had already left their homes. Rather than take the van, I just went back home and worked from home. But others were already driving, and it's not good to check email while driving, so how would they know? I only saw the email because I was planning on the carpool; if I drove myself, I definitely wouldn't have seen it. I replied to the email with a frustrated comment, because it's totally unreasonable to tell people they don't have to go to work after they've already left, especially when there were several hours where they could have sent out the email when it wouldn't be too late. Ugh!

Then on Tuesday, we went into the office, and the snow picked up in the afternoon. We left early because of the weather (and they did send out an email), and it took two hours to get out of Park City. That situation was less obnoxious than on Monday, but it still would have been nice to have known earlier.

On Thursday, they finally did their job properly and sent out the snow warning a day ahead of time, since there was a dicey forecast for Friday.

But the problem this time was that Friday was a day we had to be there. Great timing, weather! It was the day we got our movie tickets, Festival jackets (which are orange this year, and I'm so happy!), catalogs, and other items. On top of that, it was the last day of work for us editors. Usually it's not a big deal if we work from home, but this time that wouldn't work.

Luckily, we didn't have to be there on time, so I left late. This entire season of my job, I've driven my own car to Park City exactly twice: my first day and my last day. I left my house about 11:00 and got to the office about 12:40. At the base of Parleys Canyon, there were significant backups because all the semis had to install chains on their tires, and some of them were blocking the road. Once I passed them, it was slow going because of snow, and because I hate driving fast, especially in bad conditions. My car started fishtailing a bit before Parleys Summit, but I was going slow enough that I was safe. When I bought it back in 2017, my requirements were good MPG and all-wheel drive. I avoid snow driving when I can, but I was grateful I had AWD on Friday.

After we picked up our stuff, the publications team had lunch together. And then we had nothing to do, so we editors left early. I drove the two other editors back down the canyon because they had carpooled with someone else.

The end of another job. But it doesn't entirely feel like the end because I'll be attending the Festival this week and next.

This is now my third January in a row where I'm unemployed. When my job at the Church History Library ended two years ago, I didn't expect it to be this hard to get a real (i.e. permanent) job. But I don't know if I'm going to apply to many jobs this spring, unlike the last two springs, because I'm expecting to be in grad school in the fall. But I still haven't heard whether I've been accepted.

I have already established my opinion of January, so this isn't a terribly fun time of year to be unemployed. On the other hand, maybe January would be even worse if I had to work the whole month. So I'm trying to figure out what fun and fulfilling things I will be doing with all my time, especially if I won't be spending time applying to and interviewing for jobs.