My son was out of power in Houston for 32 hours and is currently under a 'boil water' order because...problems. Most of Houston's power has been restored now and it's warming up enough during the day for all the broken pipes to become apparent. In this little town every plumber is overwhelmed. Rocky spent the day repairing his own broken water pipes. Every store that carried any kind of plumbing supplies is sold out, empty shelves. Rocky called, could he have the pipe glue he knew I had? Yes of course and anything else you need.
People in the northern part of the state are still having outages and no food and no gas. Finally some relief efforts are getting under way. This is a total failure of the no regulation go it alone unrestrained capitalism policy of our republican state government where profit is king and infrastructure is an afterthought. Safety measures had been recommended after a previous frigid event but never acted on because profit always trumps infrastructure even though they would have still made a profit, just not as much. Another part of the problem, down here in south Texas at least, is that our homes aren't built to keep the cold out but to keep the heat out. Homes here have the air vents in the ceiling which is great for air conditioning but not so great for heating.
This isn't the first catastrophe from our no regulation republican government. The refineries blow up with regularity and a fertilizer plant exploded outside Waco some years back.
And of course one of our senators, that lying weasel Rafael (Ted) Cruz, packed up his family on Wednesday, called for a police escort to the airport, and got on a plane to sunny Cancun while his constituents were freezing in the dark with no water. And of course, people saw them and started skewering him on twitter, FB, and the news which he discovered Thursday morning and changed his reservation to return yesterday with a made up bogus story about trying to be a good dad because his daughters wanted to go be with their friends. The truth is that his wife sent texts to friends and neighbors complaining that the house was freezing and they were going to fly to a fancy resort that they have stayed at many times and urged their friends to join them. Rafael's original return ticket was for Saturday. Meanwhile AOC, who our politicians and ignorant lib haters kept blaming for the reason Texans had no power, her and the Green New Deal which isn't even a law, just a proposal, has raised $2M for help and aid to Texans bringing them food, water, generators, etc. while Rafael fled to Cancun. Don't anyone ever tell me that there is no difference between Democrats and Trumplicans.
We did finally have our turn at losing power Wednesday. The smaller communities around Wharton lost their power right away and went days without. One of the other volunteers at SHARE had been warned by someone she knew and passed along the information so I had already dug out my extreme cold clothes left over from my river days and got out the candles and candle lanterns and we had plenty of blankets and a little after 5 PM it did go off. I sat by the window with a lap blanket as long as there was enough available light to read and then I lit the candles and Marc set up one of those clay pot tea candle heaters in front of the couch
which had more of a psychological effect than actual heating but would probably work alright if you made a circle of them and sat inside it in a small room with low ceilings. Then he rigged up a flashlight from the ceiling fan so we could read snuggled under blankets on the couch. We fixed cocktails and just went without dinner so as to keep the refrigerator closed. We had some options for food but neither of us was hungry enough to stir from our warm nests. The power came back on 5 hours later right at bedtime. Yay!
Yesterday was my morning at SHARE, only about half the regular volunteers showed up and we were busy. Lots of food went out.
Supposed to get up to the low 40s today and tonight is supposed to be our last frigid night, 19˚, before a return tomorrow to our usual late winter/early spring weather. Tomorrow I uncover everything and see all the damage. And then I wait to see what still has life in it.
So good to hear that you are OK! Thank you for posting, I have been thinking about and how well you are fairing- in your true grit way you have done well. The plants will either come back or go to plant heaven...they come, they go.
ReplyDeleteGood to know that all is okay there and that you and Marc made it through this crazy disaster. I hope that power and water are finally restored to everyone and that the temps rise back into the normal range. Take care there. Stay safe, warm, and comfy.
ReplyDeleteThe scope of this disaster is shocking. Good to hear from you and to hear about AOC's efforts. Hope that tonight is the last of the icy weather.
ReplyDeleteThis is just so horrific for Texas - and the result of greed. I mean, there would still have been problems because this is so unprecedented, but there would have been far fewer if the infrastructure had been modified to cope with this kind of cold.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting us know you're okay. Been worrying a lot. The whole thing with Cruz has been a break for the rest of the country- nothing like a politician showing his ass in such an obvious way to keep us entertained. I hope that all of this ends up with Texas having a better power structure and Cruz OUT on his ass.
ReplyDeleteBe patient with your plants. There may well be hope for many of them.
STAY WARM, WOMAN!
So glad y'all are okay. At one time Wednesday night we thought our heater was going to die. It made a god awful noise from the fan but it just needed a little oiling. This has been the most that it has been used since last spring.
ReplyDeleteAfter our last power outage in Tucson we ordered two headlights and a small lantern. Haven't needed them since. We do use the headlight for grilling and being in the yard after dark. They're good and provide a lot of light for reading. Glad you're hanging it there.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think of the head lamps which we both have/had. they must be over in the shop in the trunks with the rest of the old river gear.
DeleteSomehow I've missed understanding that candle and pot arrangement. That's unbelievably clever. I'm going to try it just to refine my technique -- just in case. I have a lot of votive holders and have known that a dozen of them will put out a good bit of warmth, but I've never seen anyone use them this way. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're managing pretty well. Fortunately you're resourceful and don't panic. But it's a horrendous time for just about everyone.
ReplyDeleteI don't even have television or social media and yet have encountered Cruze on a spit everywhere. I have disliked him for so long; may his behavior finally catch him out.
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat idea with the tea lights and clay pot. Wondering how much heat can be generated that way if you used a larger candle. Hopefully, you don't have a lot of loss in your plants. Take care and try to stay warm!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a hard thing. I hope and wish for you that you will be rewarded with a glorious spring and summer.
ReplyDeleteWe were once stranded in a house on the French Mediterranean coast in a freak cold/frost spell with fierce icy winds, no fireplace, no heating, wind blowing through a million air vents, we put pots with boiling water under the bed covers for a while and stayed all in the one warm bed. The next morning, the pipes had burst and my daughter had a teenage meltdown. I wanted to join in but needs must etc. The rest is a blur.
But I am never far from at least one hot water bottle since then.
Glad to hear that the weather is going to warm up so the worst may be over for you. Stay safe!
ReplyDeleteAnd of course a lot of Texans will continue to talk smack about AOC because they're not getting the news about how much money she raised or what she's done to help. They're just hearing about how her Green New Deal shut down their electric grid on some faux media like OANN.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of a tea light/clay pot heater! It does look dubious, but hey, worth a try, right?
I'm anxiously waiting to see how your plants fared!