This was a week before the Winter Storm hit. Harrison went with me on my trek down Salado Creek Greenway. I think we did 6 or 7 miles. He was pretty worn out by it, so I don't know that he'll be so apt to say yes to me next time! :-) But I was sure glad to have him along.
This was not a cold day.
It was a day last week that Harrison just decided he wanted to see how many layers of clothes he could put on in case it ever snowed again.
And then last Sunday we woke up to icy roads. Our church cancelled services. We drove down the road to try a church close by. They were filming their service inside, but there were no congregants and their doors were locked. So we came back home for an online service. We assumed this would just be a cold day or week with maybe some snow.
Monday we woke up to no electricity and lots of snow! Since we wanted to keep the house warm with what heat we had, we didn't let the kids play out in the snow (well, I had let them go out in it until Phillip said we should probably keep the doors shut). So we bundled up and did some school. Much of Jonathan's school is on a computer these days, but we did what we could.
We had sandwich fixings for lunch, so we didn't have to resort to any weird foods. We tried several ways of making coffee: with a blow torch and with our alcohol lamp from chemistry. It wasn't great.
The whole day I was thinking, "At least we have water! I'm so glad we have water!"
The back bedroom actually warmed up a bit with the sunshine and the door shut and all of us back there. I even cleaned the bathrooms by candlelight.
Then just when Phillip was making reservations for a hotel for the night (not easy to find, btw), the power came back on.
It had been a weird day for me. My phone died very quickly and we didn't have cell service at times, so I just felt out of the loop of what was going on. I had seen on Facebook that Texas was doing rolling blackouts, but this didn't seem to be rolling.
Monday night we knew they had turned off the power for several hours, but it came back on at 6:30. So we got up and going like usual. Tuesday afternoon my neighbor texted to say her cop neighbor told them that they (the city?) would be turning off the water. Then I heard it from the preacher. So I texted our group neighborhood chat to tell them what I'd heard so we could all prepare. Sure enough, around 5 pm, our water was out. I've heard it could have been from all the breaks in town giving low pressure water. And also that the pumps that pump the water work on electricity. At any rate, we had filled up 5 buckets with water before it got turned off.
Those 5 did not last long (I didn't realize how much water it takes to flush a toilet). So then Jonathan started scooping up snow and melting it on the stove. We didn't use it for dishes or bathing or drinking; it's just a little bit dirty (ewww).
But I was super happy that we at least had electricity!
We went through Wednesday with no water. Thursday it started snowing again.
What a blessing this neighborhood is. One neighbor knocked on our door this morning to ask if we were able to get water at the store (we weren't ~ no water, milk or bread. Or meat. I did find some salami in case we had to make sandwiches again). She gave us almost a whole caseful of bottled water!
And that afternoon another knock. A man said, "The girl over here (pointing at Presley's house) said ya'll needed milk." He handed us a gallon of milk. Wow. We shared some with our other neighbor. We've had so many offers of food and water....
We got some low-pressure water to come on Thursday late afternoon.
I boiled it and got my dishes done! Oh, I do hate a messy kitchen.
So now we seem to have heat and water. We still have our buckets of toilet flushing water in case this is a fluke.
The kids were so happy to be able to watch the snow accumulate all day!
They've gotten lots of play time out there. They didn't realize how much it glares when the sun shines on it. They didn't realize that a cold powdery snow doesn't pack for snowballs or forts. They were surprised at the icicles and the way the sun melts the top of the snow and makes a crust. They've learned a lot about snow this week.
He is wise in his bundling.
I never was wise in my bundling and was so cold in the snow as a kid.
We made snow cream. So easy and delicious! About 1/2 a cup of milk, 1/3 cup sugar, a dash of salt and bit of vanilla. Beat that real good. Mix in as much fresh snow as makes a good slushy, ice-creamy mixture. I'm not sure I've made it before, but I'm gonna call this a great first experience.
Harrison watching the snow fall.
I'm reading about the people in town who've had it so much worse than we have. No heat or water for days. No fireplace. Some who have died from exposure outside or fires or carbon monoxide. This has been an adventure for us, but I see how scary it could turn.
"Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away" has been an experienced truth this week. What could anyone do for us from far away? I won't even drive to my friends who are 10 minutes away on icey roads (I didn't used to be scared of ice, but I haven't driven on it in a while). How could I expect anyone to reach me? Preparedness is great. We've been so fine compared to so many. But you can't really always prepare. Some things you just don't expect.
Liz and her snow up in Joplin.
Her dorm floor has been quarantined, and today this was her "yard time." OCC has also had lots of snow and classes cancelled, but the North is just better prepared for that, so they've had all the working utilities.
P.S. I taught the kids how to play Hearts. We play a couple hands at a time, so we haven't reached 100 points yet. Brings back Clouse family memories. Hearts and Spades were card games we played all the time. Miss it.
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