By now this is old news, but I've been saving up a story since the second week of February, when Texas endured an arctic blast that knocked out power to about 4.5 million homes for several days. Although my brother Rick had no electricity for about three days, and my parents had no water for even longer, at our house we were blessed to have both electricity and water the whole time.
Due to my thyroid condition, I have abnormally low body temperature and a severe intolerance to cold, so I was doubly grateful to have heat. Even so, I shivered for days because I'd lowered the thermostat to 68 degrees at the request of local utilities in order to conserve power and prevent further blackouts. It's amazing what a difference just 3 degrees can make to your comfort.
Since nothing dramatic happened at our house, my memories of this historic catastrophe will be very different from that of many of my Texas neighbors. Mostly, it is a list of blessings--treasures brought to us by "Snowmageddon."
Family Time
Allyson's dad had gone out of town the prior weekend to Houston, and he was stuck down there for five more days in an Air B&B with neither water nor electricity. Due to the first major snowfall Houston had seen since the 80s, the interstate was impassable.
For me, that meant extra time with Allyson, especially since the schools were also closed, and they didn't even have online classes due to major Internet outages. Since the roads were dangerous and nothing was open anyway, we had nowhere to go and nothing to do except hang out together.
Allyson did enjoy playing in the snow for the first couple of days with some friends who live a couple of blocks away. I was worried she'd get frostbite in frigid air--as low as -2 degrees Fahrenheit! But she was just fine, returning rosy-cheeked and breathless with stories.
