the dog

I believe the dog in the parked car in the middle of the evening shift had only been left there for a short time. Maybe somebody forgot his or her dinner, and a family member brought it from home, leaving the dog in the car for 5 minutes to bring the food inside. Or even for half an hour, to go in and eat together.

I believe most dogs are fairly safe from cold, if they are dry and protected from wind, and reasonably well-nourished. They have fur coats. It's not like I was looking at a dog in an overheated parked car in summer, which I know is a dog in immediate danger. The dog was barking up a storm, fogging the windows so badly I couldn't see what kind of dog it was. Collies deal with cold better than greyhounds. Maybe it's a St. Bernard?

I want to believe the dog is ok, because I am too tired to believe anything else.

the people

At 5:10 yesterday morning, it was snowing heavily. Hundreds of schools and businesses were closed. I called the company I worked for, to find out if they were closing because of the bad weather. Sometimes a business will change their answering machine message to something about the snow, but they didn't. After a commute that took almost 3 times as long as usual, including two really scary skids (I'm glad I was going so slowly. I'm glad the roads were so empty. I'm glad there were big snowdrifts piled up in front of the barriers.) I made it to work. They were talking about sending people home early because of the storm.

I was told the company never shuts down because of bad weather. They might send people home early (in this case, they nearly sent people home at 9am.) But as a matter of principle, they would never tell their workers it's ok to not come to work in the first place. Not 2 years ago when the governor asked everyone but essential workers to stay off the roads. Not in the blizzard of 1978.

One of my colleagues was unable to come to work because she lives on a steep street that was not plowed until Monday afternoon. She did some work from home, until her home lost electric power, and ended up taking the day off as a personal day. So far so good. She came in to work Tuesday morning, when the roads had been cleared, and a lot of people were quite aggressive about teasing her for not having been there the day before. I see how even a single comment like, "Well, it's nice of you to finally show up," could be a bit wearing...more than 30 of them in a morning would be pretty unpleasant. She gradually went from stiff laughter, to stiff smiles, to defensive snapping about aw, cmon, it wasn't her fault.

I am still new enough to ask about social customs that ordinarily go without saying (though after a month, I'm starting to lose that privilege), so I asked if people generally make mean comments when a person takes a sick day. Yes, usually. Such nice people to work with.