Monday, February 15, 2021

Winter Update — February 15, 2021

From a reader, best tweet I've seen all week:

 Wow, I feel guilty but I couldn't turn them down.

About 9:00 p.m. Monday night. Currently in Grapevine, TX, 9°F (feels like -11°F). No electricity, no power, no heat. I believe the overnight low is forecast to be 2°F.

I was snug as a bug in a rug under a pile of blankets when I heard a knock at my apartment door.

It's a long story but they, too, had no electricity and needed to be "at work" tomorrow, so my son-in-law found two hotel rooms in the local area. Tomorrow, he will use one room for work, and his wife (my daughter) will use the other room for her work. The three granddaughters also need electricity to do their homework.

So, he got two rooms and one would be vacant -- so they asked me if I would go with them.

So, here I am. At a very, very nice Holiday Inn Express near DFW, blogging away, with the extended family across the hall.

But, wow, I feel guilty. It would have been very ungracious not to accept their offer but I feel so guilty. I certainly don't deserve this luxury. I would survived overnight -- and I'm sure the electricity will be back on sometime tomorrow. 

We lost electricity at 2:00 a.m. this morning -- eighteen hours ago, and we were being told that if we didn't have electricity now, we wouldn't have it overnight.

Local law enforcement agencies were "asking" folks to find warm shelter if they did not have electricity. The city was opening up heated centers. The police/fire department did not have the resources to respond to all the 911 calls -- they wanted folks to find "warm" shelter now. This record cold spell is forecast to last another two or three days.

So, here I am. Very comfortable. 

My Norwegian grandfather who survived much worse than this on his sheep farm in northwest South Dakota would be very disappointed in me.

But most important: my extended family -- siblings, children, grandchildren know that I am safe and warm tonight. And that's most important.

***********************************
ESG

From social media: ESG is failing this nation's power grid. 

6 comments:

  1. Nicer here in the sunbelt of North Dakota. 9 above zero today but we have lights/heat, etc.

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    Replies
    1. My dad always referred to Williston as the banana belt of North Dakota when it came to weather. Wow, he loved Williston. He never, never wanted to leave. The winters never bothered him.

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  2. Saw an interesting movie.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Dieter_Needs_to_Fly

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    Replies
    1. Very, very interesting, thank you.

      From wiki, regarding this movie:

      Dengler was taken prisoner by the Pathet Lao, then turned over to soldiers of the Army of North Vietnam. After a period of torture and starvation chained to the bottom of a bamboo cage, Dengler escaped. The bulk of the film consists of footage from a trip Herzog took with Dengler back to Laos and Thailand to recreate his ordeal. Herzog hired locals to play the part of his captors and had Dengler retrace his steps while describing his experiences.

      I cannot possibly imagine how Dengler was able to relive this story. It would have been so horrific.

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  3. Bruce turn your water main off in case of broken pipes.

    ReplyDelete