Our house is in a small line of houses whose electricity is all connected. We suffer outages fairly regularly due to transformers blowing out and sometimes limbs falling since we are right up next to the woods.
So naturally it happened during last week’s snowy weather. Neighbor, Gary Griesbach, just happened to be standing at his window looking outside and saw the transformer blow. It only affects about eight or 10 houses each time, but it is constant throughout the year and annoying.
And how annoying were the rolling blackouts? And no or low water pressure? And no restaurants open?
I tried my best to keep The Reporter’s website and social media page up to date on all of the openings and closings I could find.
We were not even able to have an actual paper edition last week because of Brazos County being so hard hit with the weather. We have the paper printed at The Bryan Eagle and evidently they had phones lines down, no internet, no nothing. We didn’t hear from them at all during the week. This is the first time that has ever happened. But luckily we made the online edition free for the week and kept everyone caught up on the latest news.
On Wednesday night I needed to run an errand for Mom and I noticed Gonzales Mexican Bar and Grill was open for business and I was so happy. I had been going stir crazy in the house with no electricity. I texted a photo of my margarita to Noelia and she showed up about five seconds later.
I texted Mom and Dad my location and asked if they wanted me to bring them anything. They gave me their order, but by the time I got home with it they had both had enough of being without electricity and they went to Rainbow Courts to be well-takencare-of by Joan and Dan Ratliff.
I slept in the living room in front of the fireplace which was the only source of light or heat in the house thanks to Texas Propane. It actually wasn’t too bad. The margaritas I had with dinner probably helped keep me warm too.
We have strange dogs who do not like to come inside the house for any reason whatsoever. They, and our outside cats, had been sleeping in the garage through the entire cold spell.
However, when I got home from the restaurant that night they were ready to come in. I got their bed from the garage and they slept in front of the fire for two hours and then they had had enough. Back outside they went and wouldn’t come back inside for any reason. I moved their bed back in the garage and there they slept again.
No matter what the weather is like I enjoy being outside in the evenings after work, but that has certainly not been the case lately. I was very happy the weather got a little nicer over the weekend so I could be outside again without freezing off any body parts.
We have really been through the mill the past year, haven’t we? Starting with COVID-19, which is still going on, of course, and ending, hopefully, with this strange weather. One of these days I hope everything will come back to some sense of normalcy, but until then we just have to keep on keeping on.
I hope you all made it out unscathed although I know that is not possible for many with the water situation and busted pipes. I say if we can make it through this, we can make it through anything.
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