Good Morning All. Looks like cloudy and 13° right now. Should be our last night with the temperatures in the teens until next winter. It will still drop to just below freezing a few more times in the next month. We're still looking at upper 60's Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Then mid to upper 50's for a while. Very little of our snow has melted except off the roof. Some of that will change today as it shoots for 38°.
My wife and I are headed to Dallas to our daughter's house today. We'll be taking a bag of laundry and we'll be taking showers; the washrag thing is getting old! We'll return this afternoon so I can re-stoke the fire in the heater. I got into the car and drove to the mailbox yesterday (1.25 miles away), first trip since last Friday. Neighbors had already reported on the road conditions, good to excellent, so that wasn't any issue. I just didn't need to go anywhere! Our drinking water as well as the beer and wine is holding out; we could make another ten days of isolation if needed. It's unlikely that water is available anywhere right now anyway. I'm looking forward to Sunday when I expect to turn our water back on to see if there is any pipe damage. Since the freezing took place slowly while water was still trickling, there may not be too many issues if any at all.
I am not sure why some of the progressive areas of the state of Texas, like Austin and Houston area residents, were without power for so long. While we had rolling blackouts, they worked here. Anywhere from 35 minutes to an hour cycles for four days.
While we haven't received any notification yet for our second vaccine appointment, it is expected to be next week. When and where is not revealed until 2-3 days ahead of the time slot. Rumor has it that they are not going to use the very successful athletic field venue, but are moving it to Texas Motor Speedway instead. In my head I am trying to understand this, the athletic complex is much more centrally located and the entire area is paved. TMS is quite far from the city center, is not paved, and will have to be shared with Tarrant County (Ft Worth). There will be a whole lot more room there however. Oh well! At least that's looking up especially since it's the second dose.
Sausage, biscuits and gravy with a side of scrambled eggs this morning Flo.
Thanks once again for the reactions to yesterday's posts. I can't list all of them, but you know who you are.
No time in the train shed yesterday due to the rest of life getting in the way. I did have a chance to review some pictures from the archive to post here this morning. A little over 2 1/2 years ago, I built a Woodland Scenics kit of a County Courthouse. This kit is typical of small town courthouses/jails in rural parts of Texas.
And the roof.
Tom O - Nice looking boxcars. Do you care to name the friend in Ft Worth? I may know him from train shows/home layout tours. I found his website but it is vague as most are.
Sherrel - I'd take you up on the visit offer, but by the time we got ready, this mess will be long gone. It would take my wife a week just to find the "best" room for the night in between. You know, good rates, close to fine eating places, points earned or cashed in for extras, etc.
Tom -
I can't understand why the water dept don't have backup generators.
That's what many around here are asking. My guess, and it's not an excuse, is because it's a small rural coop with probably 50 small wells scattered about, that it's either been deemed too expensive or active members have voted it down. There's two different wells visible from my place which are only about 3.5 miles apart as the crow flies, but probably less than 20 customers
in between. There's obviously more fanned out from the wells.
Our water company has some backup generators but they have to be manually turned on and by the time that they realized what was happening, it was too late, everything had already froze up.
Chet - Yes, the propane stove can and does provide some supplemental heat in the kitchen/dining area.
I am happy with some semblance of getting back to normal.
Everybody have a great day. After I return from Dallas, I will probably head straight north to Patricks so I can help him celebrate. Stay safe and warm.
. Let’s see if we can get thawed out. Bright side of all this is that we are going to boost the economy of Texas. Millions of dollars of home repairs. Same with road repairs. We have been fortunate. Heard fan in shop making some funny noises and went out to check. Probably lost that little a/c unit. Use the fan only in the winter to circulate air in the shop. Now that weather is clearing we have to start thinking on how to reschedule our second vaccine.
