It was amazingly cold when I got up this morning but the television newscasters tell me it's going to be even colder tonight. Then we have three more days that are warmer, but still below freezing, to look forward to. I re-wrapped and re-insulated exterior pipes today, resuscitated a toilet and created some wind breaks to lower the likelihood of more damage from wind chills that are forecast to be anywhere from minus five to minus 15 degrees over night. But I count myself among the lucky Texans. We still have power, we still have a functional, gas powered furnace and we still have running water throughout the house. We're working on rehabbing the exterior faucets as well.
I did have the foresight to buy two pounds of organic, medium roast, Columbian Supremo coffee just before the roads became impassible and we're pounding through that with reckless abandon. The fridge and pantry are fully stocked so we're eating well and could probably shelter in place for a couple of weeks before running totally out of provisions. Our supply of wines is also adequate. And yes, we have chocolate.
After getting everything as well set as I could I bundled up and took advantage of the warmer temperatures near the end of the day and walked up to the small shopping center at the end of our neighborhood. I once again brought along the Fuji X100V and was very pleased with the color and overall look of the casual files I made.
I have a number of friends who've been unfortunate enough to have lost power in the middle of the night last night. It's 11 pm here and they're still waiting for power, or at least an estimate of when their power will be turned back on. I'm learning that, in some respects, old tech can be better than the latest stuff. Case in point. My friend Paul lost power late last night. His water heater is one of the "on demand" heaters. It uses gas, like my old fashioned water heater but it requires electrical power to control temperature and maintain safe operation. No electricity, no hot water.
The city of Austin and ERCOT, the body that controls electrical distribution in Texas, have totally dropped the ball in this emergency. They originally stated that they were going to do rolling black outs which would last only 45 minutes per area. Once they got into the process they found that they couldn't bring people back on line because they'd actually lost, across the state, the ability to generate enough electricity. This was not a case of downed power lines that got iced up. They just didn't push all the smaller generating parties to adequately winterize, even though it's a mandated part of the program. Seems like someone wanted to save a bit of cash and now something like 2.5 million people in the Lone Star state will spend a couple of nights with sub-freezing temperature and absolutely no heat or lights. Sitting in running cars to charge cellphones has now become an Austin thing. Heads should roll for the lack of oversight, but they won't.
In a nod to basic survival the city and county have opened up one on the big, municipal convention venues, the Palmer Center, as a heating station for regular people who just happened to have found themselves without heat and without other options. Wouldn't you know it? The hotels booked up quickly. Especially the nice ones.
It really sucks but you can't really push back on Mother Nature, and ultimately, that's the real problem here.
This is the last image I saw before I walked in the door and called it a night.
Looking west up over my front door.
This was the sign on our neighborhood Walgreens Pharmacy.
This place is normally quite busy but every shop was closed and it was like a ghost town.
This is our place. The building in the front, just left of center, is my office and studio.
It's a nice space with lots of room but the one thing we never invested in was a good
heating system. I guess that's going to change now.
But as Belinda constantly reminds me: It could be a hell of a lot worse.
Leave those faucets dripping and pull out the down comforters. I can't imagine how people dealt with this kind of stuff 100 or 200 years ago. At least I've got some fun, weather resistant cameras and lenses to play with.
Be safe and warm. Lights out. KT
14 comments:
Going thru something similar here in PDX. We're at the other end now. Lost power for a night and a day, but only down to 21 at lowest, so house didn't get too bad. Had stocked up, planned ahead, etc. but... forgot one thing. Garage door. Wanted to go out to help a friend, I can drive in snow OK (grew up in Ohio), but garage doors use electricity!! So.. stuck going to places reachable on foot, for us, that was no where. Also missed my vaccine appt. as the pharmacy shut down!! Darn, I wanted that. They'll call to reschedule they say. So... hope yours is over soon as well and everyone is OK.
Ray H.
You reminded me of Richard Feynman's famous quote in the conclusion to his report on the shuttle Challenger accident - "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
Should you get nervous about water feed to the Washing machine you can always unhook the dryer vent hose so it blows inside rather than outside. Then run the dryer and blow warm/hot air at the wall and water pipe area.
This assumes you still have electricity.
Not a perfect solution but one that can help if needed.
Well done. You’ve successfully skated through a minefield on this one. The fickle finger of fate still lurks just over the horizon in the form of rolling blackouts, however. As the utilities re-energize the shut-down portions of the grid there’s always the chance something will blow up or melt down. When we lived in northern California 15 years ago PG&E had allowed its facilities to deteriorate to the point where rolling blackouts were needed to cope with demand in response to hot weather. Fortunately, we were on the same part of the local grid as a large hospital just over the nearest ridge. That same company has been busy reorganizing in bankruptcy (at the public’s expense) after facing billions of dollars in claims due to damage done by the wildfires it caused. Somebody really needs to keep an eye on things.
Is the blue chair a counterpoint to MJ's red chair? 🤔
One advantage of 'old fashioned' hot water heaters is that you have fairly good supply of hot water AFTER the power goes out. Hurricane Isabelle in 2003 took our power out for about a week. After 3 days of running a chainsaw cutting up large trees downed on our property I was rather 'ripe' as one might say, so I decided no mater how cold the water was I was going to take a shower (our water heater is electric). I turned the shower control all the way to hot hoping for a smidgen of heat to still be left in the water. I was very surprised that the water temp was about what I would normally take a shower in. Apparently the water heaters are very well insulated. It was nice to have a degree of normality, at least for a few minutes. Then it was back to life off the grid for a few more days. I did have a generator to run the refrigerators and the well pump that supplies water so I wasn't totally without electricity.
Nice to see Austin looking like Canada. We got two feet of snow last night. I have some digging out to do when I get home. Reading your sentence about exterior pipes...we don't have those in Canada. All piping is indoors with only a faucet or tap protruding through a wall, in my backyard for example. City water into my house is deeper than 3 feet, well below the frost line, and enters my water meter inside our basement which is a good 7-8 feet below ground level. Homes in Canada all have basements for this reason among others. The concrete foundations are well below ground and house plumbing, electrical panels and furnaces etc. All safe and insulated from the harsh winter months. The foundations are wrapped with a thick, waterproofed material to protect against flooding during the spring thaw and grading below the property ensures water flows away from the house. I guess you build to suit your environment. I could see a week of winter weather wreaking havoc in an environment that is not built for it. Stay safe down there
I like the photo of VSL World Headquarters and the company vehicle fleet ;-)
DavidB
In a previous life, my idea of fun was to compete in automobile rallies, especially in winter when they were the most fun. We prayed for storms like this in the week before a rally. But winter cold is a serious thing that can kill you if you're not prepared.
In slippery conditions, one thing you can do is to keep a bag of cat litter in the trunk that you can spread over any ice that you may have parked on or gotten stuck in. You need the plain gravel kind, not the clumping scoopable kind, although anything will do in a pinch. Also, keep candles in the car. If you end up stranded and don't want to (or cannot) idle the engine for long periods, a burning candle can give off a surprising amount of heat for a fairly long time.
Car heaters can dehydrate you, so have water with you as well as lip balm. We also carry extra blankets, socks, tuques and gloves in case the ones you're wearing get wet.
Courage. The Weather Service says that Austin should be back up to room temperature (68F) by Monday.
Should anyone be craving a hot shower, what's worked for me in the past (assuming you have a working stove) is to heat up a big pot of water to a warm but bearable temperature and, Japanese-style, ladle it over yourself. But forget about trying to fill a tub in this manner: That will a lot more hot water than you might imagine.
Oh, and you're probably already aware of this, but plastics like that blue chair can become brittle when cold and shatter easily.
Jeff in Colorado
We got hit by 4-6" of snow in Santa Fe last night, but at least it's not too cold. I've been following the Texas situation with reports from WFAA in Dallas, and you guys are really screwed up. They had an interview with an electric power guy in Austin (apparently Texas electrical problems are monitored from a center in Austin) and, bottom line, he didn't know when things would get fixed. Something I didn't know: in weather like this, those wind-powered windmills can freeze up. Some other stuff I didn't know -- a relatively small diesel generator can run all the things you need to keep the heat on (if you use gas heat in one way or another) and should the gas grid fail, a larger generator could run electric heaters to at least keep the house warm enough that the pipes don't freeze inside. The whole Texas experience has been a bit of a wake-up call for people who live in the Southwest. There are way too many systems that depend entirely on electricity, and the grid is fragile.
Good afternoon Kirk.
Climate change is real. I think we'll all have to realize that sooner or later. Then decide what to do about it locally and globally. Either to stop it or adapt to it.
There! I've said it!
In the mean time, we just have to bear the inconvenience. it. It will probably pass.
Good luck for the rest of this, Kirk!
Stay warm. I’ve read Texas didn’t invest the extra 5% per turbine to buy winterized ones thinking it wasn’t needed. Oops. Ours up here in the frozen upper Midwest seem to be doing just fine.
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