Day 4072

Another ridiculously cold day. It's weird to be in the middle of a story that's become national news. Predictibly, everyone seems to be looking for someone to blame for this mess. Are frozen wind turbines the problem? Is poor statewide planning the problem? Is the fact that it's just not supposed to get this cold in Texas the problem? I'm sure that there is plenty of blame to spread around, but that's not going to make it any warmer. 

So many people are without power and the outages haven't been caused by ice covered power lines or falling trees. They've been caused by power companies shutting people off to prevent the entire power grid from collapsing. I never even realized that Texas wasn't even part of a national power grid. We're stuck when something like this happens because we can't buy extra electricity from warmer parts of the country. Usually this isn't a problem, but when the entire state is under a winter weather advisory, there just isn't enough energy to go around. I really wasn't expecting this, but I wasn't expecting Covid either. It makes you wonder what is going to happen next.

We still have power and I don't think any pipes have frozen, so we are among the lucky ones. Things can change quickly though, so I don't think anyone is taking their situation for granted. There's another storm headed our way that could be even worse than the first one. This time sleet and freezing rain are in the forecast and that is often a lot worse than snow. Most of our Winter power outages in the past have been caused by ice covered trees and power lines. That could easily happen again. 

There is so much conflicting information about how to cope with cold weather. Some say both the hot and cold water lines should be set on drip. Others say the hot water should be shut off entirely. There is a controversy about a drip versus a thin continuous stream of water too. I keep hearing that it takes a lot more energy to raise the temperature on cold days than to cool the temperature in hot days. This doesn't make sense. Our gas furnace uses way less electricity than the big air conditioner compressor out in the back yard. All I know is that my electric bill is way higher in July than it ever is in February.

We're setting our thermostat lower and turning off lights when we leave the room. I'm not sure how much this helps though. We have a very small house and use much less energy than most of this extravagant city.   Probably the biggest culprits are the huge office towers downtown that light up the sky every night from miles away. 

Dawn has sensibly decided to stay inside, but Janet and I are still taking daily walks. Each day the walks get a little shorter. We only walked 3 1/2 miles today, but that was plenty. The terrain seemed icier today since a lot of the dry power snow on top of everything has blown away. Underneath this snow is ice and it's pretty slick. I'm still amazed at how many people are out driving. Some of these people are probably essential workers, but others are just fools who are going to wind up in a ditch soon enough. Our own cars aren't going anywhere. We start then every day to keep things working properly, but they never leave the driveway.

I hope the sleet and ice forecasters are predicting tonight doesn't amount to much. After tomorrow, things will start to get better. They say by Saturday the temperature might even climb above freezing.

Joshua is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4070 - Valentines Day

Brr. It's 12 degrees now and the temperature is falling. The roads were coated with ice this morning with a light dusting of snow on top. The snowfall was never heavy during the day but it is starting to accumulate this evening. This is exactly what the forecast predicted, but it's still hard to believe. This is not a normal Texas winter.

Needless to say, neither of our cars left the driveway today. We've gone out to start them several times to keep the batteries charged, but that's about it. I'd like the house a little warmer, but we followed the power company's instructions and lowered the temperature. The last thing we want now is a power outage.

Dawn has no interest in going outside. She will run out in the backyard quickly to pee and poop, but I've never seen her do her business so quickly before. I'm sure Dawn thought we were crazy when Janet and I decided to see how far we could walk this morning. We made it four miles, but I don't think we'll be doing this again tomorrow. The first half of our walk was brisk and enjoyable, but we were both really cold by the time we returned home. We had to walk carefully to avoid slipping on icy ground. I wore heavy hiking boots so my feet were warm, but the soles flexed too much which caused my foot pain to return. I really can't win with my feet. Today I wore a lightweight cloth mask which made breathing easier, but what I really need is one of those wool Balaclava head coverings that mountaineers use. Of course by the time I can get the car out of the driveway to get one at REI, the worse of this weather will be over.

When Janet and I were out walking we saw several power company trucks in the neighborhood. Some people must have lost power overnight, but luckily there have been no widespread outages. This is what everyone fears. There have been several ice storms here in Dallas that have knocked the power out for days during the middle of winter. We have so much glass in our house that the temperature drops quickly. An extended power outage in this house isn't fun. I don't think that ice is going to bring down power lines this time, but it definitely is sticking to the roads. I won't be driving anywhere tomorrow. My rear view mirrors have frozen and are stuck in the retracted position anyway, so that's not good. 

Janet made a pot roast in the slow cooker today and the smell made staying inside a lot more pleasant. A good pot roast is almost the perfect meal for a cold winter day. The wind chill is already below zero and the actual temperature will be close to zero by tomorrow morning. I've done everything I can to keep the pipes from freezing, but when it gets this cold they just might freeze anyway. Got my fingers crossed that everything will be fine. They say it's going to be real hard to find a plumber when all this is over.

I don't know why cold bothers me so much. I went to high school in Alaska where the temperatures got down to -40 during the winter. It was common to see kids with bandaged ears at school. The cool kids never dressed warmly enough and their ears would get frostbitten if their cars stalled out on the way to class. Dad made sure that we dressed like we were making a trek toward the South Pole. I was always warm. Our large coal fired furnace ran constantly during the winter. Every Fall a large dump truck would come to the house and fill an entire room in the basement with coal. The house was well insulated and there was double pane glass everywhere. Oddly, I was warmer in Alaska than I am now.

The snow is supposed to stop later tonight, although tomorrow is going to be our coldest day. I feel sorry for folks who had an appointment to be vaccinated tomorrow. It's going to be a mess. At least there won't be quite as many bugs next Spring. This hard freeze should kill most of them.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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