My, My! What a strange couple of weeks it’s been! The pandemic continues and then we had SNOWPOCALYPSE 2021!!!
Life kept moving along rather routinely for the new pandemic normal. Valentine’s Day 2021 was approaching. My Beloved and I were planning for a small and sweet celebration. Instead of going out to a crowded restaurant like we usually did, we determined which restaurant we would select for our takeout order. Of course we chose Govinda’s. Our now favorite vegetarian restaurant. On weekends and holidays their menu is vegan. What fun!!! This was our plan and a darn fine one it was. A romantic dinner, just the two of us, outside under the glow of a string of red heart lights.
Then as the time grew nearer we heard about the upcoming “cold snap” that was being forecast. The closer Valentine’s Day got, the warnings became more dire and specific. Sunday afternoon, evening and overnight all of Southeast Texas was to expect frozen rain, sleet, snow, and whatever else falls in the northern states during this time of year. Houston has received these types of forecasts before. Sometimes we got the wintry mix weather and sometimes not. I braced for 24 to 48 hours of cold weather.
Our romantic dinner turned into a romantic late lunch. Food was obtained from
a very festively decorated Govinda’s. The balcony was decorated, but the meal was moved inside. It was very nice, but all festivities were over by 4:00 p.m.
That was when life began to get weird.….or at least weirder than before and that’s saying a lot during a global pandemic.
As afternoon moved into evening and into night, I listened to the freezing precipitation hitting the window. I was glad I was inside my warm home and didn’t have to worry about going anywhere on Monday. Then around 2:00 a.m. the lights went out.…everywhere. For the next 20 hours I huddled under blankets wearing several layers of clothes, socks, whatever I could find. Then after 20 hours, the nice electric utility put me on a rotation where I had electricity for 4 — 5 hours and then I didn’t have electricity for 4 — 5 hours. Rolling blackouts they called them.
In order to keep the tone of this blog on a positive note, I won’t go into the details of the electric emergency that ensued all around. Unless you are living under a rock, you either lived through it yourself or heard all about it on the news.
After several days, my electricity was back on for good, but then Houston went under a “boil water notice”. That was fun. At least I had electricity with which to boil the water. Many folks did not have this luxury. On February 21st, I once again had both water and electricity. While many people are still dealing with broken pipes and such, I am fortunate to once again stay in my nice comfortable home with clean running water.
A week later the city has warmed back up again. One week the temperature outside was 14 degrees. Seven days later and the temps are back in the 70s. Ice has all melted and I have resumed walking outside for exercise. But not before taking a tumble on the sidewalk and bruising my left hand and wrist. Which, of course, makes typing a blog all that more fun. I hope you appreciate my efforts and suffering for my craft.
Today, my Beloved and I went to the Houston Arboretum. We were curious how
the trees, plants, turtles, crocodiles, birds and squirrels handled the wintry blast. I am happy to report that the animals seemed to have fared well. Turtles were resting on logs, birds were flying and squirrels were scampering. We did not see any crocodiles. Alas, several of the plants which had been green during our last visit are now brown.
Remember the good old days when we thought all we had to do was to survive 2020 and then things would get better? Good times.
Can’t wait to see what happens next.…or maybe I can. Stay safe!
Until next time.…..
