Snow – Postcards from Retirement

Snow Day in Dallas

You might remember the “Snowpocalypse” of Feb 2021 when Texas had lots of snow, ice, freezing temps, and the power grid went down, leaving many without heat and water for days. We were among the fortunate who suffered no ill effects, thankfully, but it was a dangerous and deadly time for others. Sadly Texas has done little to assure the situation doesn’t happen again and here we are with another bout of winter weather upon us. We woke up to snow this morning and it has continued to come down steadily. I have my tea, my knitting, my political work (and a new Beto hat), my cats, a roof over my head and a heater that works so all is well in our little corner of the world at the moment. Hoping everyone else is staying safe and warm.

Of course, Amarillo always gets lots more snow than we do. Bonnie’s kids (and a friend) are enjoying a day off from school!

Blizzard Day

We woke up to lots of snow! We had gone to the store previously and bought dowel rods to make “Harry Potter” wands since we figured we’d be stuck indoors. We used a hot glue gun to make designs on the dowel rods and then painted them. The kids had a ball and made LOTS of wands. 🙂

Snow Days, continued

We were among the fortunate who did not lose power or water. We went out for some walks and enjoyed the snow, along with the coziness inside, mindful that others were not so lucky. My poor sister had no power for five days in San Antonio. Since she has a lot of animals, including fish in a large aquarium, she did not want to leave her house. Thankfully she did not suffer any ill effects but it could not have been comfortable!

People in Texas are still dealing with the after effects–high utility bills, broken pipes, home repairs, and a non responsive state government and utility companies.

Snow Days

I interrupt the blog catch-up to report that Texas is having quite a winter snowpocalypse. Apparently our state is not on the national electricity grid, having chosen to “go it alone” as we are wont to do. Unfortunately, we have also failed to take precautions for major events like the current very low temps and out of character weather. I read that, in its wisdom, the state government opted out of having backup plans for problems like this, thinking that a large scale outage in 2011 was a “once in 100 years” event and we wouldn’t have to worry about it again. Well, at least not the “we” who are living.

At first we were told there would be “rolling blackouts” to preserve the grid from being overloaded. It was estimated that people’s electricity would be out for 15 to 45 minutes at a time, no big deal. This was yesterday and some homes have been without electricity for over 24 hours now, some for partial days, some for sporadic periods. Others have no electricity AND no water. Somehow, we are among the fortunate who still have both. We have cranked down the thermostat to do our part in conservation and have taken the usual cold weather precautions. Thankfully we don’t have to be anywhere and can just hunker down at home. My couch and my warmest blankets and socks have been my best friends. I’ve been knitting and Rich made soup. We’re trying to keep up with family and friends in various parts of TX and beyond.

I am worried about those who have no home or whose homes are so cold they are having trouble managing. The city has opened “warming stations,” but you can only go for awhile to warm up and charge your devices, no overnight stays. The homeless shelters are full. Plus the roads are bad and we’re advised not to get out. No good choices for people who are suffering; once again all of the inequities of society are revealed.

I feel like I make everything political but to me everything does have a political element to it. Why should TX be allowed to opt out of the federal electricity grid? Weren’t our officials recently threatening (once again) to secede, but now they want emergency help from DC? Why do we not have better infrastructure and emergency preparedness locally, statewide, nationally? Why are some people always at more risk than others?

In a year full of somewhat avoidable difficulties, here’s another that could have been mitigated if we could be a bit more forward looking. Why is that always too much to ask?

Salina KS to Boulder CO

Yesterday the weather was already starting to change when we left our hotel in Salina. We battled wind and rain and a little bit of sleet all day long, not much fun, but not as bad as it could have been. I was envisioning icy roads and/or poor visibility for six hours–thankfully it didn’t get to that point. We drove through an Arby’s and ate our lunch in the car…the new way of life since covid19!

Later we pulled off the road in Kanorado, yes, right on the border of Kansas and Colorado, to get gas. Meandering through the little town a bit, we drove on some dirt roads till we found a small, run down, self serve gas station. We were happy to leave the proprietor with a little extra off highway cash. It doesn’t look like there’s much happening in Kanorado except some big grain silos. According to the 2010 census, there were 153 people living in town, down from 248 in the 2000 census. The main employer is the Kanorado Coop Association related to grain and bean harvesting and wholesale. I fear it’s another little town that will fall by the wayside in the not too distant future. I wonder about the people who live there, who they are, what they do, what they’re interested in, what their hopes and dreams are. Did they always want to live in a small town or is it just where they ended up? Do they love it or long to escape?

We hit Denver right as the snow started in earnest, traffic was somewhat backed up but we got through in pretty good time and on to Boulder. We checked into our very nice room at the Residence Inn and unpacked for a few days’ stay. After relaxing for a bit, we walked to a very nearby Sprouts and picked up some provisions for dinner. By then the snow was really coming down–very pretty, but not exactly what we had in mind when we planned this trip!

Today we went down to the Pearl Street Mall area, parked the car and walked around in the snow and drizzle. It was deserted and there was no problem social distancing at all! We’ve only been there in the spring or summer before, when it’s always packed with people. Most of the stores and restaurants were closed but we did browse one very cool gift shop, though we left empty handed. I had laughingly reminded Rich that last time we were here, we got a parking ticket on our rental car. He didn’t really even remember that. After we’d been walking awhile, I was getting cold and wet and said I was ready to return to the car. Sure enough, there was a parking ticket on the windshield. When we parked, we didn’t realize we were supposed to pay at a kiosk which was further down the street. We thought it was free street parking. Oops. Thankfully it’s only a $15 fine if we pay it soon, otherwise $30. 🙂

Then we drove around Boulder to get a feel for the layout and to see what’s what. Again, not too terribly exciting with the weather putting a damper on everything. Apparently there were high winds a day or two before we came and there are lots of tree limbs down on streets and in yards. We stopped at Trader Joe’s and stocked up on some more food for our stay since I don’t think we will be eating out much, if at all. Kind of a bust of a day and now we are back in the hotel room just chillin.

According to the local news, this is the earliest snowfall in 20 years! 🙂

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	Suzassippi on Winter Formal
	janebye on 92!
	janebye on Happy Anniversary to Us
	Suzassippi on Happy Anniversary to Us
	Suzassippi on 92!