The Official Oklahoma Snow Day Plan:

[BDP]

Stay Home.

[Martin]

no crap. i remoted in to work yesterday but decided to drive today... the highways weren't in great shape during my drive. i didn't slide any, but little had been cleared off on I-44. -M

[Luke]

My wife and I are gonna go buy some card games and head over to our brother, sister-in-law and nephew's house to enjoy some family time.

[John]

Driving to KC!

[Martin]

dang... that's even worse... drive safely!

tomorrow i'll be in my warm home enjoying some hotwings or some other ncaa football snack... and enjoying instant replay of all the great plays! -M

[redredwine]

dang... that's even worse... drive safely!

tomorrow i'll be in my warm home enjoying some hotwings or some other ncaa football snack... and enjoying instant replay of all the great plays! -M

OMG!HOTWINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yum!

[redredwine]

WE are going to play in the snow, play games here inside, and just hang out. My hubby is bird hunting with his boss....(for the life of me I cannot figure out why anyone would want to freeze thier A off to kill a bird).

[OUman]

**edit**

[fsusurfer]

unfortunatly, I had to work yesterday and today...B.S.!!

[MadMonk]

Going to work, just like any other day. I don't see what the big deal is. Snow is not that hard to drive on.

[Martin]

i agree it's not hard to drive on... i just don't trust the other drivers not to screw up. -M

[BDP]

the highways weren't in great shape during my drive. i didn't slide any, but little had been cleared off on I-44.

Yep. Less than half of my employees showed up yesterday and a few are still not in today. I had one division that had to shut down because none of that staff showed up yesterday. I can't really blame them because the official state plan is to stay home and the desgintaed "snow routes" I drove on yesterday and today (Western/Classen) haven't been touched by any crews as of 10am this morning.

I understand that it was a bad storm for Oklahoma, but, really, can't we respond a little better than this? I'm not sure I would want to move my company here if everytime it snowed every information source and every official just shrugs their shoulders and tells everyone to stay home (especially when it seems half the state drives 4 wheel drive vehicles).

[bandnerd]

Well, since my school closed both days my plan is/was:

Yesterday: Agonized over the fact that I lost a day of rehearsal with my band and orchestra, my newspaper sat at the printer and would be late, and I had a yearbook crisis that couldn't be solved anywhere but at the school. Walked outside for a bit to take the pics, watched a movie, ate too much popcorn, played xbox, watched Grey's, talked to mother. Bored, bored, bored.

Today's plan: Hopefully go to lunch with the husband, go outside to take more pics if it's less cold/windy than yesterday, maybe watch another movie, cook dinner, the evening is still up in the air.

Oh yeah, lots of time spent online wasting time away. Messaged a lot of students with the information we'd be having extra rehearsals next week since many of them left their instruments at school.

I'm one to talk--my flute is up there right now.

Technically, I could probably get to school, but since so many of our students and teachers commute a long way, I know the principal didn't want to risk it. We definitely don't want the kiddos driving on this.

Otherwise, it's a lot of time spent petting the cats and watching tv.

Anxiously awaiting tomorrow's game--now that it's been mentioned I may have to get some hotwings. Maybe I'll order some out from Hooter's or something lmao.

[redredwine]

Bandnerd....what do you take pics of? Everything? I would love to have a GOOD camera to get awesome shots of just stuff, you know the things you could only get once in a lifetime.

[redredwine]

I was thinking Buffalo Wild Wings...

[bandnerd]

Yeah, well, I was going to go take pics but my feet were soaking wet before I even got out of the gate. Looking at the sidewalks across the street and the slushy street, I don't think I could have made it to Subway before busting my butt, so I just brought myself back to my apartment.

I just take pictures of the buildings and stuff when it's like this, I posted some pics yesterday under the OKC Metro Talk section. It was easier to walk yesterday because I went early and there wasn't as much snow on the ground as there is now.

I'm already going stir-crazy. My car is not good in this stuff (Honda accord, no anti-lock breaks) so I'm not driving anywhere. Now I can't really even walk anywhere. I need some of those good water-proof boots or something, shoes with good traction.

As for my camera, I just have a canon powershot SD300 digital elph. It has served me well. It takes great flower shots, once you learn how to manipulate the settings. It hasn't disappointed me yet!

[redredwine]

I have this angel, she is concrete, laying on her tummy, kinda antique looking. She is laying on some rock that is part of our waterfall into our pond in the back....she is so worthy of a good pic today I want to take it, then blow it up in black and white and frame it for our bedroom.

[metro]

camped all night at Chick Fila!! woo hoo

[Spartan]

Snow days are just bogus free vacation days. I always say you want a vacation day take one.

That's not how my work operates, though.

[Martin]

camped all night at chick fila!! woo hoo

ok... you just can't say something like this without an explanation... what's up with camping out at chick fila? -M

[metro]

you didn't hear? it was in the paper and all the news channels. anyhow every time they open a new chic-fil-a they give the first 100 people in line free combo meals for a year. unfortunately the new one that opened yesterday occured at 6am on the coldest night of the season so far. I camped out for about 7 hours in the bitter cold, i just feel sorry for the people who were out there an entire day! See the article below (the writer is a typical mediocre Oklahoman writer, notice she said it was OKC's first Chic-Fil-A restaurant several times. She should have clarified that is the first stand alone unit in OKC proper, there are others in the suburbs. It's things like this style of journalism that make outsiders think we're in the sticks. Thank goodness Steve Lackmeyer gets it unlike most of their writers. The article mainly focuses on Chick fil A facts (things you could read on their website) instead of why they do the promotion or the crazy antics that occured, etc.

‘Chicken Pack' weathers storm during opening of restaurant

By Trisha Evans
Business Writer

The opening of Oklahoma City's first Chick-fil-A restaurant drew crowds despite Wednesday night's winter storm.
More than 100 people bundled up and pitched tents outside the stand-alone restaurant to wait in line for the 6:30 a.m. opening Thursday. The first 100 adult patrons at 7004 Northwest Expressway received coupons for a year's worth of combo meals.

"It was pretty much an all-night party here," manager John Starr said. "We had a blast, but it was ice cold. We had guys ice skating on their shoes, relay races, football games. We had games all night."

He said the line started forming at 8 p.m. Wednesday and had 100 people waiting by midnight. Most were college kids, but he said a couple families waited in the line, too.

Franchise operator Rey Ferreyro said Chick-fil-A openings usually draw crowds that sometimes include groupies he called "The Chicken Pack," who follow openings all over the country.

Ferreyro is optimistic about his new restaurant and career. Previously, he was a general sales manager for a steel company in Dallas. He also said he's excited to be back in Oklahoma.

"We lived in Oklahoma during our early years of marriage, so it's like coming home for us," Ferreyro said.

Owning a Chick-fil-A franchise first piqued his interest during one of many trips he made with his family from Dallas to San Antonio. He said he looked along Interstate 35 for restaurants that were clean and fun for his kids, but there were no Chick-fil-A's.

"My wife and I have always been fans of Chick-fil-A," Ferreyro said. "As we found out more, the more impressed we were with the company and the opportunities it allows owner/operators."

Ferreyro said the application process was rigorous, and he counts himself lucky he was selected. The company receives 11,000 applications every year, and 65 percent of all franchises go to Chick-fil-A employees, he said.

Ferreyro said the franchise fee was $5,000, much lower than what he would pay with a different company.

"On the flipside, you do share more of the profits with (Chick-fil-A)," he said. He splits 15 percent of the net profit and 50 percent gross with the company.

The Atlanta-based restaurant chain is growing, spokeswoman Cindi Pickett said. It reached $2 billion in sales Monday, Pickett said, and sales have doubled in the past six years.

Chick-fil-A opened five new restaurants this week and will meet its goal of 71 new locations in 2006 — 63 of which are stand-alone restaurants.

The Oklahoma City restaurant will create 45 jobs, Pickett said.

[Martin]

ahh... i see. i hadn't heard and wasn't aware of the practice. sounds like pretty good marketing strategy. so you got your coveted year's worth of coupons for braving the cold? i'm definitely on board with the idea that chick-fil-a is moving to more stand-alone locations... i think they were stuck in a diminishing market by operating primarily in shopping malls. hope your night in the cold paid off! -M

[Patrick]

Have to be at Children's Hospital. The life of a medical person doesn't end because of the weather. I put skates on my car and high-tailed it to TCH.

[Keith]

Have to be at Children's Hospital. The life of a medical person doesn't end because of the weather. I put skates on my car and high-tailed it to TCH.

I'm right there with you, Patrick. Working for the City in emergency services pretty much guarantees that I will be at work....rain, shine, snow, sleet, etc........Our boss actually told us Wednesday that we needed to get up a little earlier Thursday morning, so that we would not be late. The shift starts at 7 AM., and I was there by around 6:15 AM.

Fortunately, with many businesses closing and the schools closing, there wasn't that much traffic to deal with Thursday morning. I just took my time as I drove my small S-10 pickup to work. After work was a little more of a challenge. I left work with snow coming down and the wind blowing fiercely. I actually went over to the Econolodge hotel on Meridian, that caught on fire earlier that day. It turned in to a 4-alarm fire, so there was extensive damage. I went over to the scene and took some pictures. Afterwards, I headed home....i wanted to be home before it got dark.

Since the snow was still blowing, I backed my truck into the driveway, under the carport, so that the snow would blow on my back window instead of my windshield. This morning, no problems at all. My biggest challenge was pulling out of my driveway.

Anyway, whether the weather is good or bad, I am required to be at work. It doesn't bother me, because I really enjoy what I do. I like it so much that I volunteered to work tomorrow evening.

BTW, redredwine, I also like taking pictures. Many of them are posted in the OKCTalk photo gallery. Everywhere I go, my digital camera goes with me. You never know when you will get the opportunity to take a good picture.

[bandnerd]

Isn't that all noble.

I guess technically I could still be molding the minds of tomorrow but my principal said we could have some time off. Doesn't help if they kill themselves on the way to school, I guess. Something like that yeah.