Sun Showed Up

According to my source for weather, we did not get a hard freeze last night. At 6:00 AM it was 35. Clear skies and the birds are singing. We hope to be able to buy propane soon. They currently do not have any. We are still good for a while yet. I think it is under half but considering what we have been through so far it should hold us until they can get more.

The next hurdle will be the water plant having electricity so they can treat the water and we can stop boiling it. That I am told will take several days. It will take a few days for the grocery stores to get restocked too so it may take as long as a week to be restored to normal. Well, another new normal.

Our friends in Trails End finally got power at 7:00 pm last night. They were without power from Monday to late Thursday. That would have compounded problems for us by a bunch! Mainly because our generator didn't and doesn't work.

When we go into our self-induced lockdown for cold weather we pull all the day/night shades down, draw all the curtains closed that applies to, put our self-designed styrofoam pieces into the skylights and vents. I have a real bugaboo about not seeing outside. I just this minute opened up the shade next to my computer because the sun was shining and oh what a good feeling it was to see outside once more! The sun is a power to be reckoned with down here so I have a feeling their predictions may be underestimated. I certainly hope so!

And the cold goes on...

 First the good news; last night the electricity came on at 7:40 PM and stayed on. Just for kicks and giggles, I kept track yesterday of the offs and ons.

Wednesday, Feb 17 after being off all night, came on at 4:30 AM

Went off at 9:30 AM back on at 11:00 AM

Went off at 1:30 PM and on again at 2:30PM

Went off at 5:40 PM and back on at 7:40 PM and that was the last outage we have had since then but still holding our breath. 

But the water plant being without electricity was unable to treat the water so we are advised to boil it.

Tired Yet?

We are very grateful to have the electricity back on. We have one more night of freezing weather and then we are supposed to be done with this. We are under the second HARD freeze warning this week at 28 degrees tonight. The last time this happened that I remember was Christmas eve of 2005 and I am not sure of that. I know it snowed and there were icy places on the ground but not sure if it qualified as a hard freeze. 

I covered both of my plants but it wasn't enough. I am certain they have expired. I haven't dumped them yet in case there is a tiny chance of a sprig that might make it. Only time will tell. I might have to get a start from Karla for the Christmas cactus. The other one was a geranium and they are usually not hard to replace come Spring.

When a person is holed up with the main goal of keeping warm, it makes for not much newsworthy stuff to relate to you. The only place we have been all week is at the BatteryWarehouse. I need to go to the grocery store but as long as I still have the stuff to cook it isn't a big priority.

Butch is reading "The Bartenders Tale" 

and I am still reading "Grant"

. Hey!! It's a BIG book. I used to be a fast reader but not so much anymore. "Grant" parallels so much of what is happening today. It makes for memorable reading. History does repeat itself. Perhaps because we do not learn from it.

We are waiting for the propane truck so don't plan to go play pool until he has either been here or we give up on him and assume he ran out of propane. 

We are signed up to play mixed doubles on Sunday...and it is supposed to be 80 degrees! How do you like them apples!

Situation Update-Batteries

After finding our deep cell batteries were nearly 6 years old we knew we had to replace them. As long as we had electricity they still performed well but when we relied on them alone the charge value dropped like a rock! As most of you know I use this blog as a journal and in addition as a record of stuff that needs remembering. I refer back to our conversation when we discussed where and when we bought the last deep cell batteries,(in Florida, March 2015 at Batteries Plus Bulbs) This time it is South Texas, February 2021 at Battery Warehouse. The new batteries should ease things for us a bit.

I am also trying to keep track of when the electricity goes off and then comes back on. It went off this AM at 9:30 and came back on at 11:00 AM while we were buying batteries. Still Willy-Nilly.

After getting the new batteries in place Butch went to the pool hall to play with the guys. Funny how the electricity was off both Monday and Tuesday for the women's pool time!! 😒

This weather is not going to completely ease up for us till Saturday. The rest of Texas will still be in a struggle as they are looking at another storm to cross their path. It shouldn't reach us this time. Still will affect the TEXAS Power grid such as it is...or isn't.

I was looking at the official website for Trophy Gardens, just to see if I could tell with new eyes the impression given. They show a slide presentation of photos taken throughout the park with different activities. Low and behold I see a pic of Butch in the pool hall and this was most likely last season and definitely, before he broke his leg. 

Here is the website:

https://www.rvresorts.com/trophy-gardens.html

And here is the photo of Butch. I snipped it from the website.

A Texas Downside

 Texas has many times threatened to secede from the good old USA and it seems when it comes to electrical power they have succeeded in that endeavor.  I am not making this up. Their electrical system is self-contained you might say. The rest of the nation is on a grid of the western US or the eastern US. Texas stands alone. So when the entire State is in an emergency situation as they currently are they are the only source to get power. They cannot tie into the national grid. They wanted it and they got it. And now they don't like it.

What does this mean for us? It means the electricity comes on and goes off willy-nilly. You never know when you might have electricity and when you won't. Need to cook supper? Do you really want to take that chance? And this applies to every other household chore. And that is just the tip of the iceberg and I mean that literally as well as figuratively. The only store that is open is HEB and that is because they have a generator. All other stores are closed because even if they could sell you something it would have to be a cash-only transaction. And no telling when this will change.

Yesterday we had electricity until 11:30 AM-then off till 1:30 PM- then on until 7:30 PM-Back on at 4:30 AM. Plan your day around that situation!! There is no reasoning connected to this that we can tell. 

We lived in Iowa all of our growing up years and never had this situation. If the electricity went off it was because of downed lines or a blown transformer. There was always a reason and never just poor planning. The Texas Governor is livid but isn't that a bit too late?

Copied from NBC News:

The problems are exacerbated because Texas, the largest energy producer and consumer in the United States, is the only state to use its own power grid. That frees it from federal regulations, including ones that could have required it to be better prepared for a freak cold snap, said Peter Fox-Penner, the founder of Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy.

“Texas’ deregulatory philosophy has caused them to put much less stringent rules on generators and system operators to be prepared for cold weather than other systems, where extreme cold is more common,” he said in an interview.

“They believed that this kind of ‘perfect storm’ was so unlikely that they didn’t need to require the system to prepare for it,” Fox-Penner said.

The Railroad Commission of Texas, which despite its name regulates the oil and natural gas industry in the state but not any railroads, said that the weather had stopped fossil fuel production in some parts of the state.

"Some producers, especially in the Permian Basin and Panhandle, have reported experiencing unprecedented freezing conditions which caused concerns for employee safety and affected production," the Commission announced Monday.

The one-two punch of the storm and sudden power outages have caused wide-reaching damage across the state.

For the Fagan Family Farms, a small independent organic produce farm in Kyle, Texas, lost produce from the cold snap was bad enough, but the power outage was devastating. They had about $20,000 worth of lettuce growing in the electrically heated growhouse, owner Shawn Fagan said — about a fifth of his annual business — and that's now all lost.

"I had the next generation growing in the growhouse,” he said by phone. “Not only do I not have anything in the field, I don't have anything to put in the field now.”

Kevin Collier

From another viewpoint

 Friends Jim and Deon Spangler are in Trails End this year and I thought you might like to read her viewpoint.

Barb

 From Deon:

A quick update on what is happening down here in the Rio Grande Valley. Unheard of record low temperatures, no power and now a potential gas shortage!

This is historic to say the least. It was in the low 20s this morning and the power in our park has been off for 36 hours. It is supposed to be a rolling power outage but this has not rolled, just been a steady no-power situation. The Dollar General across the street was closed yesterday and today and if the power doesn't come back on will be closed tomorrow too.

We have our generator which has provided us power to have plenty of heat from the gas furnace, lights, TV, etc. We got one of our propane tanks filled again this morning (had filled one yesterday too) and after driving around for two hours this morning finally found a gas station that we could manage to get into to fill our gas can to keep the generator running. They are now saying there is, or will be, a gas shortage as people are using their cars to go out and sit in to try to get warm.

Some of the Magnolia people I think may have found a motel that had rooms and power. Both are in short supply that's for sure. Harpers are in their motor home as that has a generator. Susan Van Houweling is here in her motor home which I'm sure also has a generator. I think Carmen Friesen is over at her son, DeWayne's house as he lives just across the street from her. As far as the rest of the Magnolia people, I do not know how they are faring. Chet & Irma are managing quite well and everyone is very hopeful that we will power restored at least for a while tomorrow.

We took a quick walk up to the dumpster area and noticed that a few of the mobiles now have large generators sitting outside and running and those people have lights on, otherwise it is totally dark although when I look out one of our windows I can see lights over to the west of us. It is interesting where the outages are as there does not seem to be any reason why one spot has power and the next one doesn't.

As far as I know, Magnolia Village over in Donna has power and water, or at least the last I heard, they did.

The store shelves in Walmart are empty of bread and milk and I imagine short on other things too. 

This event will be talked about for a very long time and the news is saying there will be an investigation into why there are many hundreds of thousands of Texans without power.

I hope that wherever you are, whether up north or down here in the valley somewhere, that you are staying warm and safe. 

Winter Check List For RV'ers

 We were all good but when the power goes out it changes things a bit. This morning we have electricity and all is good. It is like the song lyrics, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone."

https://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/joni+mitchell/big+yellow+taxi_20075370.html

Here is where you can find the checklist:

https://www.rvtravel.com/winterchecks1537/

A Doozy

 It has been a doozy of an event the past two days with another slated for tomorrow. It was rainy with a cold north wind on Sunday. Unpleasant but we did go up to the pool hall and play in a Valentine's couples tournament. We played with our spouse and it was great. Butch and I had a good time, and we both played fairly well. There was some tough competition and it was fun!

Sunday night:We knew we would have to shut the water off because temps were predicted below freezing so Butch went out after supper and drained the hoses. We did lower the furnace to 50 degrees because we knew we had a nice cozy situation with a big heavy comforter that Peggy had made for us and an electric blanket. We were never cold as long as we stayed in bed. And then the electricity went out at about 2 AM.! And it was 23 degrees. Initially not an issue...we have a generator. But the generator would not turn over. Too cold! Next, we turned on the MoHo and ran the furnace using power from the batteries while it was running. Using up our diesel fuel.(we have enough) Our batteries seemed to be in a bit of a struggle so we were discussing when we last purchased them and it was when we were in Florida in March of 2015, nearly 6 years ago. No wonder they are struggling a bit. It took hours for the temp to rise and it struggled to get to 30 today. The sun did come out midafternoon and it is currently 38 degrees.

Our electricity is back after 12 hours. They are telling us it could happen again tonight. We plan to get new batteries and work on getting the generator working but it needs to be warmer to get these things done. We knew it was supposed to be cold but not that cold!

Tonight is going to be a repeat of last night. Predicting a low of 22 perhaps dropping to 18! This should end tomorrow with a high of 51 and a low of 45. One difference will be no precipitation. We don't like this cold situation but we can live with it. There may be many people less fortunate than us who will not.

There are still lots of outages and my best Interent connection is out so I am having to rely on my phone hotspot. So posting this might be an issue.

Hurry