Bad Weather

Bad weather is on the way. Again.

I blame Texas. That's where this crap has been starting. Not in Los Angles. Not in Las Vegas. Not in Albuquerque. No, rumor has it that the center of the outage is some place north of San Antonio. Possibly in a small village called Bulverde (verde means green in Spanish). Or maybe a little bit further north, in a wide spot in the road called Spring Branch. Or maybe it's called Spring Break. It's what I hear.

Texas has its own electric grid. Texans are a proud and independent people. They were sure that one day America's electric grid would go down and they wanted to be independent and keep their electricity turned on. Their state motto is, "We don't need your stinkin' electricity." I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. But unfortunately for Texas, when demand went up the grid went down because they couldn't draw extra power from the big grid. 

That's not to say that we always have electricity here in Virginia. A hurricane or an ice storm can bring down tree limbs, breaking electric wires and causing power failures. But the power failures are localized. My power can be off and a few blocks away the power is still on. Electric power failures are spotty.

I feel bad for the Texans without power. I really do. I just went through a weekend with no electricity, and it wasn't fun. And the temperature was just below 30°F, which is really not that cold. It's a tad below freezing, but not so cold that you would worry about your water pipes freezing and bursting.

Today is sunny, the temperature now is 30F° and the high temperature will be around 40°F. But tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night will be when trouble may come knocking at my door. We're supposed to get a "wintry mix" for 24 hours followed by a night of freezing rain.

So last night I bought food. I also bought five gallons of kerosene. I have a kerosene space heater, which won't heat the house but it will heat a room. I've used it many times as a supplement to my primary heat. It feels good to have a "hot spot" in the house.

I've prepared. Now all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best. I'll cross my fingers for those shivering Texans, too. I hope they come through this new cold snap without further loss of life. In 21st century America, no one should die because of bad weather.