2021: Think Positively for a Better Year!
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Pam--Take care in that horrible Texas weather. It looks as if we are in for a full week of ice, topped with some snow.
I guess we have definitely said good-bye to snow days. Last evening, we were on a delay but this morning, it was switched to remote learning with classes to begin at 9am with regular schedule to follow. I had a hunch that would happen when all students were loaned laptops to use during the pandemic.0 -
Pam--Take care in that horrible Texas weather. It looks as if we are in for a full week of ice, topped with some snow.
I guess we have definitely said good-bye to snow days. Last evening, we were on a delay but this morning, it was switched to remote learning with classes to begin at 9am with regular schedule to follow. I had a hunch that would happen when all students were loaned laptops to use during the pandemic.
That's wild that you predicted it. I bet a lot of folks saw it as an unexpected COVID side effect.0 -
Hopefully here we'll start to get out of the snow/ice by the end of the week. Next week's weather is showing in the 50's.
Today it "packet day"!0 -
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Virtual school versus snow days is a good thing. Having to extend the school year with make up snow days is worse than giving up a snow day. Sometimes the school year would run almost to July. Most schools in my area start after Labor Day so school is in session until mid-June. Because of so many children traveling by bus, superintendents had to call off school based on forecasts. In some instances, school was called off and then little or no snow actually fell.0
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Pam - I hope you guys are okay down there! The weather news sounds grim!0
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Today is a NS day. I lost 2 pounds last week. While I believe there is a correlation between calories and weight it is obviously not linear. Which is what I guess gets everyone frustrated sometimes.
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I'm currently watching the Octavia episode of My 600-lb Life. This woman is carrying a ton of weight in her shoulders of all places. She doesn't seem too motivated so I'm not sure how much success she'll have once she gets out of the controlled environment of rehab.
I may be imagining it but I think Dr. Now is getting tougher as the seasons go along.0 -
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Pam, I hope you and your family are okay. The news out of Texas is so grim. I’ve experienced cold during winter power failures but nothing as cold as what the news is reporting. Do you have a fireplace and/ or a gas stove to heat up hot drinks.0
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DH is listening to the news and seeing ice in our weather forecast. He's running the generator and eyeing vulnerable tree branches. After living without a furnace for over a month this winter I think we've been through enough thankyouverymuch!0
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How are you getting by without a furnace? I hope it doesn’t get too cold for you to bear if if the power goes.I’m so glad to be here with tropical temperatures.0
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How are you getting by without a furnace? I hope it doesn’t get too cold for you to bear if if the power goes.I’m so glad to be here with tropical temperatures.
Starting about Friday it's supposed to be in the 5's here.
The furnace is fixed now. For that month plus, we just used space heaters. We're good with no furnace. No electricity would be a problem if it went on so long the generator ran out of fuel or if the generator wasn't working. We have a fireplace but it hasn't been used in over a decade and needed cleaned then.0 -
Thank you all for your well wishes and concern. I have to say, it’s been really tough. Our power went off for an hour early Monday morning, then again at 7:30 and just came back on 45 minutes ago. It got down to 44 degrees in our house this morning. We do have a gas fireplace that we’ve had burning continuously, but it doesn’t really put out much heat unless you are right next to it. We’ve made use of a lot of DH’s camping gear to stay semi-warm and heat some food. His sleeping bags over our down comforter kept us pretty comfortable last night — until it was time to get up! As a friend said on Facebook, “I don’t remember trying out for Survivor — Fort Worth Edition”. I pretty much look like a homeless person — a layer of Cuddl Duds, jeans over the bottom half, long sleeve shirt, thick fleece top over that, wool socks, knitted cap on my head, and fingerless gloves to round out the ensemble. And of course, none of it matches. I’m a vision, for sure!
I’ve also been off-line because our internet service went out with the power. I didn’t want to use my phone to post anything as I needed to preserve the charge as long as possible since we didn’t know how long this would last.0 -
Pam - thanks for letting us know you're okay. Sounds like the camping gear really came in handy!!0
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Pretty ingenious use of camping equipment to stay somewhat warm in the power outage. 44 doesn’t sound that cold until it happens to you. Somehow it feel much colder inside the house than the same temp outside. I hope this doesn’t last too much longer. Thanks for let us know you’re okay.0
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We lost power again for about 3 hours yesterday afternoon but it came back and hasn’t gone off again. I was able to get a shower this morning and wash and dry my hair, so I look less like a homeless person today. I’m not feeling very well though. I’ve had a headache for the past 2 days and feel pressure behind and around my nose, so I suspect I may have a sinus infection. I haven’t been around anyone in nearly 2 weeks, so I can’t imagine how I could have caught a cold or anything worse, so I’m assuming sinus infection.
DH is patrolling the house, on the lookout for the first drip from any burst pipes. While I know we need to be vigilant to minimize any damage, he’s driving me nuts!0 -
Pam--So sorry about the challenges you are facing. It is cheaper to pay an increased water bill than to pay a plumber, so keep those faucets dripping.
We are awaiting storm #3. This kind of weather motivates me to eat. I just want the nasty weather gone!!
On a positive note, more and more of our state is turning green with reduction in Covid cases.0 -
We lost power again for about 3 hours yesterday afternoon but it came back and hasn’t gone off again. I was able to get a shower this morning and wash and dry my hair, so I look less like a homeless person today. I’m not feeling very well though. I’ve had a headache for the past 2 days and feel pressure behind and around my nose, so I suspect I may have a sinus infection. I haven’t been around anyone in nearly 2 weeks, so I can’t imagine how I could have caught a cold or anything worse, so I’m assuming sinus infection.
DH is patrolling the house, on the lookout for the first drip from any burst pipes. While I know we need to be vigilant to minimize any damage, he’s driving me nuts!
I'm sorry you feel terrible but glad you have power! DH has asked me about you a couple times believe it or not.
We were just watching a news segment on MSNBC and they were interviewing folks about what they can do short term and what needs done long term. Apparently community action has now become a dirty phrase, instead of evoking helping your fellow man. What a strange time this is.
We're to get snow/ice tonight so I gave all the colony cats a big meal this morning.0 -
I’m feeling much better today. I’m not supposed to take NSAIDs because of another medication I take, but I finally took a couple of Advil with dinner and that got rid of my headache. The main concern is over potential stomach irritation, but I take the prescription medication in the morning so I didn’t think there was as much risk taking a couple of Advil with dinner. I almost never do it, but I figured once in awhile it wouldn’t hurt.
It’s still very cold here, but our power hasn’t gone off again 🤞🤞, so hopefully we will make it through without any more issues. So far we have not had any plumbing issues, but may not be out of the woods yet. The temps won’t go above freezing until sometime tomorrow and that is when DH thinks we may see issues. One of our neighbors yesterday had a pipe burst and DH and several others went over to help sweep the water out. Some brought shop vacuums as well as big push brooms, helped pull up carpets, etc. It’s nice to live in a neighborhood where people help each other out. Another neighbor put out the message that he has the tool that the city water department uses to turn off your water and would leave it on his front porch in case anyone needed to borrow it.
Many of the surrounding cities are also experiencing water problems. In part that seems to be due to broken water mains, but also due to everyone continuously running water to keep pipes from freezing. There is also increased demand as pipes are bursting and flooding areas. Many of my friends are unable to flush toilets due to low water pressure and must boil water for drinking or cooking. So far, our water supply has not been affected, but we filled a bathtub to use for flushing toilets if needed, as well as several jugs for drinking and cooking.
Our state legislature meets every 2 years and this is one of them. Our governor has called for energy regulation to be on the agenda for this year, so we will see if any changes are made. We were without power for about 31 consecutive hours as well as a couple of shorter periods, but many have been without for more than 60. That is unacceptable, by any standard. I also read this morning that some area hotels had raised their rates to around triple their usual rates during this time. Also unacceptable. I think the Republican leadership of our state has a lot to answer for in their quest to deregulate everything.0 -
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I like the officials who are blaming the problems on Texas on the Green New Deal. Ummm, fellas, that hasn't passed........0
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Unless it’s a tax cut for the wealthy, it’s always too expensive for Republicans
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Pam - I'm so glad that you're doing okay so far and hope it continues! I wonder how many Texans ever thought they'd need generators and water supplies and non electric space heaters to protect pipes. We do here but then we're used to winter ice storms and summer power outages due to a/c.0
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Maryanne, most of us were woefully unprepared for these extreme temperatures. Records were set for the lows and it was described as a once a century storm, although it has also been compared to one that occurred about 10 years ago when we got 14 inches of snow at our home. I remember it well because DH was working an out of town job in Greensboro, NC so I had to deal on my own. The pool froze solid but I don’t recall losing power, certainly not for as long as we did this time. I also recall severely spraining my ankle during that cold spell and hobbling around in a boot.
A few people do have generators, but not many. We had one as part of DH’s camping gear, but it isn’t big enough to run very much. We were able to put most of the contents of our 2 freezers into a cooler which we set outside. DH just brought it back inside and loaded it back into the freezers a little while ago. So far we don’t seem to have any leaks. He is turning off the water now and checking everything to be sure. We had taken up all of our nice rugs we bought in Turkey last year as a precaution, and pulled back carpet in areas where we had outside faucets in the wall that he was afraid might leak, but so far everything is completely dry. We also have a small propane space heater that I used some of the time, but we were close to running out of propane bottles to run it, and those are scarce right now in the stores. I think we were pretty lucky, overall. So many people will be dealing with damage and repairs for a long time.1 -
Pam - I'm glad you didn't have it as bad as some!
DH read that Ford 150's now come with a really decent generator. I guess for camping. And some people were using those.
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A synopsis of the cheeto's legal and financial troubles (may they all come true):
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/18/politics/donald-trump-tax-returns-finances/index.html0 -
From the Post:
It’s not really a mystery as to what’s going on, yet Texas’s leadership, including the governor, is promising investigations. But without fundamental changes to the state’s power grid, another failure is certain and with it further loss of life. What’s scarier is that other states are looking at Texas for inspiration on how to deregulate their own electric markets. I’m guessing those politicians across the nation pushing deregulation are now watching us shiver and having second thoughts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/18/texans-grid-outage-deregulation/0 -
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