The Week From Frozen Hell in Texas
Hello & welcome to my world! SE Texas has not been fun this past week, for me or a lot of others here. My Power went out Monday 2 am and was out for 54 hours. I have NEVER been so cold in my life – 39 degrees inside my house Tuesday when I woke up. I felt like a popsicle. I had every blanket and comforter that I own on my bed. I wore gloves, 2 pair of pants, 2 pair of socks and sweaters to sleep, but could NOT get warm. One night I even put a scarf on my head to keep my ears warm.
This is “ME” bogged down in figurative snow at times., and this week we had the real stuff along with ice!
Power returned
Power back on Wednesday morning. I was lucky as I had water, and no apparent leaks or burst pipes. My water, however, was brown when I first
Ice & Cold Packs are your friends, except when your house is freezing…
turned it on, but it cleared. I’ve had clear water ever since. It doesn’t appear that any pipes are damaged. I haven’t unwrapped my outside connections yet. That will have to wait.
Me the Plumber
I also learned I can do “basic” plumbing as one of my faucets still had what
Keeping with the theme today = plumbing & frozen pipes! Enjoy your day!
appeared to be very low pressure. I removed the bottom of the faucet; cleaned it out and discovered the rubber washer was rotten and plugging up the faucet. I replaced it (good thing I save things as it sure came in handy) and my sink is now running fine. all my pipes under the sinks are PVC and appear okay, but I guess time will tell.
I keep hearing about PEX pipes being more durable, but I’ve no money to think about or consider this now. This is just another thing that will have to wait. My list is growing…
Poor Poor Plants
My outside plants look like the walking dead. Hopefully, they’ll come back
succulent plants need little water, but they need warmth & sunshine!
from the ground. I hope so anyway. I will certainly find out in the next few weeks. My bougainvillea had new growth on it prior to this weather event, but that’s gone. My plumbago could be wilted spinach, but I have hopes that will also come back. Not sure what my chitalpa will do. I guess I’ll find out.
I just finished cutting the soggy mushy snake plants back to the dirt. Such a shame as one of those plants was old and the mama to many of my others, but it was so heavy to move, and my garage was so full. They were in large pots that I covered with triple layers of sheets, to no avail. The rhizomes and roots in the dirt appear okay, so I’m hopeful that I will have new growth soon.
Strange Discoveries
I discovered weird things when it was so cold in the house; like Memory
Are you irritable? Do you feel better after cursing?
Foam gets hard as a rock when it’s cold. A discovery I could’ve lived without.
No Internet, No Phone
I had no internet or phone all week. My service Finally came back on Friday and boy, I am still catching up on the one thousand emails I had. It turned out that most of these emails needed to be deleted, but that still takes time.
Sitting at your computer can be harder on your body than you think, & definitely not good at night if you have sleep issues, but I sure missed my computer this week.
ERCOTT SUCKS!
Ercott dropped the ball here as this could’ve been prevented IF they’d done
Cursing like a sailor? That’s what I feel like doing when the “tech” stuff raises it’s ugly little head! They say cursing is good for you
proper maintenance and proper inspections, but they did not do so. Unfortunately, Texas is on it’s own grid. The only part of Texas that isn’t is El Paso, and they were FINE! This was a manmade disaster that should not have happened anyplace in our country.
One last question I have for Ercott or Centerpoint is: WHY were some on rolling blackouts and others permanently OUT??? Just one mile from me they had rolling blackouts throughout while my area was out for nearly 2 1/2 days… I bet they will NEVER explain that one to me…
Centerpoint Energy
Centerpoint Energy is the company in our area, and they VERY obviously, did not want to talk to anyone while this was happening as it was close to IMPOSSIBLE to reach a live person during this time. It seems like they did not want to be bothered with us, or they did NOT want to hear what we had to say about this VERY uncomfortable situation.
Ted Cruz Must Go!
I won’t get political here, so I’ll only briefly mention the a$$wipe
Are you bleepable? I was this past week.
who took off for Cancun as this was happening. He did NOT care about anyone in “his” state. May he rot in Hell! Sorry but that is how I feel. That is all I will say about that.
Facebook posts totally out of context
There is something else that has pissed me off about all this and that is the
If you tweet on the toilet, I’m sure you want it to be clean, and truthful. Do your homework (fact check) before you post.
stupid, totally “out of context” Facebook posts that are making this event political. If they didn’t live through it, I just wish they’d Shut Up! They are showing someone’s electric bill of $16K, but never stating that this is only through the company Griddy. This company is different than the regular power provider. Look it up to see how they sell power if you’ve not heard of them. I won’t go into detail as this p0st is Not about them.
The posters on Facebook make people panic thinking everyone will have such bills and this is simply a lie. If you are on a regular electric plan, you will NOT have exorbitant bills.
Well, enough for now. Time to get back to my playing catch up… Stay safe and warm wherever you are… Have a safe dry warm day everyone!
You need to Keep our planet healthy by not polluting our air. It’s the only planet we have! This horrible weather event is the result of Climate change! what have you done to help slow this process?