You'll laugh and snort into your claret at the Ranchmen's Club or the Eagles' Nest eyrie of your mountain redoubt, but Texas isn't prepared for subzero weather, for ice and snow. No, things pretty much shut down apart from essential services, a bit like the scamdemic when you think about it. And do we cower in servile, serflike fear before our old enemy, the Weather?
No, we do not. On the contrary, we go out on recce patrol into the frozen tundra of this once bustling farming community. What was it like? The roads were deserted, predictably, and I let the dog off the leash to prowl and explore.
He found the new Ice Age exciting and so did I, it was like being in Calgary but in Texas and without any traffic, though there were a few cars at First Baptist. Perhaps their riders got trapped there after worship on Sunday when the snow came in. Who knows, maybe they're burning cheap editions of Calvin's Institutes to keep warm. Good luck.
The Pick 'n Steal was open though and so was Brookshires. You see, essential services are up and running here thanks to the dogged determination that is Texan spirit. Well done people, never surrender, never, ever give up in the face of adversity.
Back at the Compound a soldier stated, "I went outside for a smoke. Damn it's cold, feels colder than Calgary. How'd you do that walk?" Rhodie bounded through the door, pleased to be home, and I replied, "Yes, son, it is quite chilly."
More from this new front in the War on Weather as it unfolds. Pray God we survive.
Your Frozen Friend,
LSP
Hoping the overlord geniuses have made changes to their power supply plan from the last ice storm you all had and no outages ensue from the cold snap.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your power plants are up to the freeze LSP. I have vague memories of a few years back during another Texas freeze out. Hopefully the utilities have hardened their facilities. You be safe out there!
ReplyDeleteThe last time around people were shocked - shocked I tell you! - to discover that water freezes below 32 degrees. Hopefully this time around they will have figured out how to drain the plumbing.
ReplyDeleteWas 15 degrees here this after noon when I finally ventured out to forage for supplies. That being beer and something for dinner.
Have a friend who grew up In Walden, CO and now lives in Texas. He was complaining about the cold. When I suggested he could always move back to Walden he replied with some ugly words. We've hit -8°F in the past few days. Banner does't like the cold snow between his toes.
ReplyDeletePanhandle gets some weird weather conditions too. Had business in Sweetwater one morning, drove in the night before and awoke to sunny and 70-degrees. Got my thing done and left. The Eschaton dropped 17" of ice on Sweetwater that evening, and I was told hilarity ensued.
ReplyDeleteAnother time in Lubbock, got my business done first thing and headed north. It was sunny and in the 70's when I left Lubbock, then ran into a band of snow about 20 miles south of Amarillo and ran out of it about 20-miles north of town. There was about 6" of snow piled up in downtown Amarillo and more on the way.
Besides being the hometown of Buddy Holly, Lubbock is also known as The Nothing Capital of the Western World. All the left over nothing in North America is shipped to Lubbock on empty rail cars and stored in vacant warehouses until needed elsewhere. Quite frequently, there's so much of it shipped to Lubbock they have to stack it up in large ground piles for storage. Sometimes the high wind generated in the Panhandle (a phenomenon caused because the Midland-Odessa area sucks) blows the tarps off the ground piles and all that exposed nothing scatters everywhere and looks like hell until it all gets piled back up. I'm told you have to be a Lubbock native to tell the difference before and after, though. I know this all sounds like a tall tale but go have a look for yourself sometime and you'll see.
Here are 5 women from Tokyo kicking ass...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUt_JBMocKM
Seems OK so far, Paul. But I tell you this, if it goes on for a fortnight we're in real trouble.
ReplyDeleteMaybe set up communal bonfires around flaming windmill blades and solar panels? Dammit, no use. Toxic smoke.
Thanks, DOS. Man, that was right cold a few years back, one more week of it and there's have been trouble. No kidding.
ReplyDeleteI know, Zenda, freezing point is, apparently, a mystical thing in this age of science.
ReplyDelete1? Brrrr. Saying that, I like going out on a farage in adverse conditions. OK, if you have to live with the ice age for 6 months in the year it does get exhausting, but still. Enjoy the beer(s).
Cold, WSF, poor Banner!
ReplyDeleteBut it's weird, when it gets cold here it feels somehow worse than, say, Alberta cold, which is really cold. I don't know why, maybe because we're not used to it?
Wild, I totally believe you, but guess what. I've never been to Lubbock. Huh, must sort that out.
ReplyDeleteWhat's Midland like? My Great Grandmother was carjacked there in the 1920s and produced a revolver from the glove compartment, causing the would be assailant to run away. That's all I know of it.
WOW.
ReplyDeletePat, that's most awesome, all these Japanese MAIDS playing metal with cool/subtle bamboo stage lights. Love it. Hmmmmm. I'm reminded of a pal who specializes in that kind of thing when not at RAK.
A confluence of aspects? Perhaps. Regardless, that's definitely going up on the soon to be resurrected JUKEBOX MONDAYS.
Midland was once described as an armpit 20 miles east of another armpit named Odessa. The description of both is apt.
ReplyDeleteThat's what it's like, IMHO.
Lubbock is actually a fairly nice town with generally wide streets but hellish hot in the summertime and surrounded by nothing. Hence the "nothing capital" description. For towns out that direction, I prefer Abilene followed by Amarillo and thus endeth the list.
I've always thought Amarillo (note Emmy Lou) and Abilene were ok, in their way. Would I want to live there? No, but then again, there's a time when I'd have foolishly laughed with scorn if you'd said Hillsboro. I was all about London then, you see.
ReplyDeleteAn old friend pulled out of the city a little after me and said, wisely, "If I'd stayed I would've gone to hell."
So there is that.