Still Experiencing Power Outages

A quick note, since we don’t know how long the power will last. The power comes on randomly, lasts for between 3-4 hours, and then goes off for about 4-6 hours. There doesn’t seem to be a schedule. They’ve repeatedly attempted to turn it on during last night, but something must’ve gone wrong because it kept turning off after a second or two.

Update: the power is now being turned off after about 45 minutes. This is my third stab at trying to finish this post.

The lows at night have been hovering around 9-12 degrees. About 6 inches of snow fell, and most of it is still here, covered with an icy crust. The city 25 minutes north of us lost their water supply because the power to their pumps failed. People in our city are burning their furniture to keep warm. Several Texans died. We don’t know when this will end.

This is outrageous. It’s five inches of snow and yes, the temperature is low, but it’s not like this is a massive freeze. The failure of Texas Power Reliability Council is catastrophic. Some people have been without power for 40 hours now. When they tried to do rolling blackouts, half of the fuses blew when the power was turned on. Yesterday I was outside with the dogs, and I heard artillery fire. Gordon used to be stationed at Ft. Sill, where field artillery is based, and that’s what it sounded like, except it wasn’t the artillery fire, it was likely transponders exploding.

Kid 2 so far hasn’t lost power, probably because she is near a children’s’ hospital. She spent the last three days in intense fear of the power going off, because she owns two lizards. Kid 1 is stuck in Florida. She had gone there with her boyfriend to see his family and can’t come back, because the airports are shut down.

Please don’t worry. We are okay. We’ve gone through blizzards in NC and winter storms in OK. We have a fireplace and Gordon, being a prudent man, advocated for the purchase of an extra cord of wood, which we planned to age over the summer. We are now using it to heat the house. The temperature at night drops to low fifties without power, so it is definitely bearable. Our stove is gas. Our neighbors are okay so far. We fed the feral cat who refuses to come inside and she is fine. We also fed the birds and the wildlife.

Sookie tried to commit suicide. The pool had frozen solid and while we were unloading the wood from the wheelbarrow, the idiot bulldog, who has never encountered a frozen over body of water, snuck out onto the ice. She weighs 80 lbs. She got about four feet in and went under. All of our dogs are trained to swim to the stairs, but the shock of the cold water must’ve been awful, because she panicked. I thought for sure we would have to jump in, but she responded to the voices and swam for the stairs, and as soon as I could reach her, I hauled her out. She was in the pool for about 8 seconds. She is fine now.

Texans come together in an emergency. Kid 2 had to leave the house because her boyfriend’s best friend’s cat was alone in his apartment for three days without food and with limited water. He called them in a panic, because he was in another city and couldn’t make it back since the roads were unpassable. So they decided to drive 3 miles to his apartment, so they could break in through the window to save the hell cat, who usually attacks them on sight when they visit. They got stuck right out of the driveway, and neighbors came out to push them out. They got stuck again at the apartment, having given the violent cat food and water without being too badly injured. A nice Hispanic lady with two small children who didn’t seem to speak any English tried to help, but the car was truly stuck despite the 4 wheel drive. Then a black lesbian couple emerged from the apartment, and they were like “Get in, we’ve got this.” And they pushed them right out.

Thank you, ladies. I don’t know the three of you but if we ever meet, dinner and drinks are on me.

I don’t know when we will be back online. Right now Gordon is trying to use the brief moment of power being on to run payroll and pay the bills. The worst thing is, we have written nothing. The power simply doesn’t stay long enough.