The Stranded

Matt Hanson is still in Pierre, just as he has been for the past ten days, proving it is indeed possible to leave college for ten days during the middle of the semester and not miss a beat.  Matt's MSN name: "Neato storm, hu?"  I think he meant "huh."

Nick Sandbulte is back home in Leota, Minnesota.  After attending the Vikings game on Sunday, Nick was unable to return to Madison, even though he tried to do so unsuccessfully Monday morning.

Brandon Nase is another who was unable to make it back.  On his drive from Hot Springs to Madison, he was forced to stop in Mitchell, where he reportedly had a nice day off, enjoying a few drinks in the afternoon.

Mom probably had some difficulties on her rural mail route Monday, that is, if there was any mail.  Keloland reported mail service was cancelled in many regions.

Blizzard '05: Mayhem Strikes Madison
Yes, I know it is unfair to say Madison was the only place to be hit hard by the wintry weather, because as I understand, people all over have been without electricity all day, including my very own family back in Carpenter.  How do I know this?  They haven't answered the phone all day and I had an important question for Mom regarding my graduation: Do I send out invitations and hope distant relatives send me cash?  As you can see from this file photo at left, it was not that nice out 'round these parts Monday.  It was so bad, in fact, that school was called off here at DSU.  How rare is that?  I'm in my ninth semester here, and this is officially the second time we've had classes cancelled.  You have to go all the way back to freshman year in the dorms to find the last time this happened.  I remember Aaron Rush, the day classes were cancelled in 2001, said the previous time it had happened was his freshman year, four years earlier.  That of course is much different than my old grade school days when we missed 31 days of school one winter due to weather, and were able to make it up by doing "half days."  We went to school until 1, then dismissed.  Five minutes later, we officially started a new school day that lasted till 3:30.  It was ridiculous, but Willow Lake officials had the brains to find a loophole in the system that allowed us to not only avoid extending the school year, but  had us go even less than we would have to begin with, with that five minutes of space in between the two half-days.  While I'm cozy in my bedroom at the desk, some friends are not so fortunate to be back at college (see left bar).  By the way, I had written a much longer, much funnier version of this until our power started going on and off between 10:00 and 11:30 and somehow lost it when we lost internet capabilities.  Not wanting to waste another hour, I typed the mini version.

Remember my winter precautions: Eat lots of candy, drink lots of urine, and... wait, how does that go?  Well, just stay inside and read this website.

Ryan Glanzer