Day 4075

It's still cold, but the snow is melting rapidly. ERCOT says that operations have returned to normal and that the crisis is over. Plumbers, on the other hand, say the worst is yet to come. I'm surprised at how many people have had their pipes burst. Even brand new buildings have had frozen pipes. I don't know if we did everything right or just got lucky, but our water is still flowing. 

It finally got above freezing today, but only for a little while. That was enough to get a lot of the ice off the roads though. The road in front of our house is almost clear. I don't think we'll have any problem going grocery shopping tomorrow. The problem will be finding food. A lot of the grocery stores in town have been emptied out and I'm not sure how quickly they can be restocked.

It got warm enough today that we were able to do a load of laundry and take showers. The blame game will go on for months, but I think the worst is over for this storm. With the temperature expected to reach fifty degrees this weekend, I think everyone can finally begin to relax. It's ironic that this is the time of year when retailers have their big winter sales. There were some great bargains on gloves and coats, but it was almost impossible to get to the stores.

We're going to try to give Dawn a walk tomorrow. During the cold spell she had become increasingly reluctant to leave the bedroom. This is not a good sign. Hopefully with warmer temperatures she will enjoy being outdoors again. Dawn needs some variety in her life and she could certainly use a little exercise.

Janet and I are definitely getting our exercise. It's surprising how much more strenuous it is to walk in the snow. We've been pretty tired after our walks this week. Oddly, Fitbit doesn't give me any extra credit for these cold Winter walks. I feel tired, but my heart rate is actually lower for some reason.

I've always thought the slogan of the Post Office was "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Apparently this isn't true anymore because we haven't gotten any mail all week. I can understand curtailing deliveries during the worst of the storm, but there was no reason that mail couldn't be delivered today. As far as I could tell, the roads were clear. The trash folks seemed to have mixed feelings about picking things up today.  The recycling folks emptied all the blue cans, but the regular trash pick up trucks were nowhere to be seen. I put out the trash anyway last night because I knew that if I didn't it would almost guarantee that the trucks would arrive on schedule.

I don't think it was really necessary to start the car today but I did it anyway out of habit. Sitting in the car this week while waiting for it to warm up has reminded me of the Groundhog Day movie. It was the same thing over and over again twice every day. I've never claimed to get good gas mileage, but I was surprised that I used up an 1/8th of a tank of gas just sitting in the driveway.

It's been a long week, but we really didn't suffer much. We had electricity. We had water. We had WiFi. And we had food. What more do you need? I do think we've had enough of winter though. Let's move on to Spring.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day