Wednesday, February 17, 2021

The Big Chill In Texas

Hi, Friends, How are you?
I hope you are warm and well.


We are fine here in Texas. Bill and I haven't lost power. The power lines in our neighborhood run under ground, so we haven't had some of the transformer issues. Texas is experiencing normal storm conditions combined with shortages in our power grid due to frozen wind turbines and solar panels that aren't getting enough sunshine. 
Our lowest temperature was 1˚. It hasn't been that low since I've been in Texas. Bill's mom is in her 80s and she doesn't recall anything this cold. Every Texas county was under a winter storm warning which is unprecedented. We are accustomed to power outages in the spring and summer instead of the winter so many Texans weren't prepared. 


I feel very blessed that we did not lose power. Bill was a Boy Scout so he has some skills in the event that we did. Even with that, much of our camping gear in out in East Texas. 


 Bill's mom lost power at her place. Bill was on his way to check on her when the assisted living place called and said they didn't have power. She had been in the cold for about 8 hours. He brought her here. 
It took a while to warm her up. 


Our daughter lost power and she is safely ensconced at my brother's house.  

We got a boiling water safety alert this morning. Thankfully we had a lot of bottled water to take out to East Texas. 
We'd already had our coffee before the alert came out. Gross.Hopefully that was good water that was already in the pipes. No word on when that will be lifted. I'm not drinking the water for a while though. 


I've had moments of concern about our new house out in the country but I've tried to put worry aside. If the pipes or the well freezes, it's something we will deal with. I'll be sad but in the grand scheme it would be okay. That is one of the ramifications of having an extra place, I guess. Our neighbor went over to check on it yesterday. He said everything looked fine. It's a God thing that we have met him because he never met the other owner. We met him a few weeks ago when his dog was running around on the highway and he and Bill exchanged phone numbers. What a blessing. 


We got another dusting of snow last night so the roads are bad again today. 
We don't have snow plows down here so we rely on sunlight and traffic to clear the roads until the snow melts. 


We bought a house in the spring of 1983. It had been a bad winter so we lost a lot of shrubs because of the low temperatures. I have a strong feeling that some of my shrubs here in town will die. 
I know that one of my favorite trees out in East Texas has storm damage from ice that blew in a few days before the snow.  I don't know what else was out there and the few things that I planted should be okay. 


I joined an East Texas plant group on Facebook. Many of them lost everything in their green houses when they lost power.  
I brought in most of my tender potted plants and they are okay for now. 

 
This is has been another bizarre experience in what has been a long year. 


We are through most of the cold, cold temperatures. The energy crisis continues so we aren't out of the woods yet as far as that goes. 
We are used to wind, hail, tornadoes. Winter storms? Not so much. 
I don't know how you guys do this every year. 
That is an update on us.
I hope you are well and warm!  
Katie 


3 comments :

  1. It has been so rough for almost all of us across the country. I do feel for you guys in Texas that lost power for so long. You had the same temps as us but we are use to this up here in Illinois. Even for us this is below normal temps and we have had 36 inches of snow since February 1st. That is more than we get in a normal season. I think our earth has left and we are all in the Twilight Zone with Covid and weather now. Hang in there. We are all going to warm up. I just worry up here when we start to warm up where these 4 foot piles of snow will go! Have a safe day and evening. xoxo

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  2. My plan today, if you hadn't posted, was to mail and check in on your. I'm so relieved you have power and also that your family members are safe. I hope the house in East is OK. But you are right -- if you get out of it with a water problem, it's never fun but beats some of the alternatives in comparison to others. Take care, my friend. Be safe.

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  3. I'm so happy everything is fine on your end.

    I feel horrible about people suffering especially the elderly and little ones.

    Texas has been in our prayers.

    Cindy

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