As many of you have seen on the news, Texas recently experienced severe weather with a week of power outages, frozen water lines, loss of cell signal and/or internet, and in some instances, a loss of sense of humor. Gene and I were extremely fortunate that we only had minimal power outage (2 hours) and two days of a boil water order. And for those who know me well, of course I was prepared for a zombie apocalypse as well as a winter apocalypse.
Days before the storm, I stocked up on groceries and Gene disconnected the sprinklers and we made sure all faucets were covered. When the first power outage occurred, Gene and I grabbed a blanket, fired up our Kindles, lit a candle and poured a drink. Having wintered in Iowa for over 20 years, we know it’s important to get some anti-freeze in your system early.
The next day (and after a few more drinks), we learned that Mom and my siblings were without water, but ours continued to work. Since cell signals were sparse we decided to invite Mom over for a (Three day) sleepover just to be on the safe side. We also invited Miss Yuki dog (Mom’s rescue dog) to stay over as well. She is not a fan of winter and the traumatic (One mile) drive from Mom’s house to ours exhausted her to the point she slept for the next three days. Gene even cleared snow from the porch and a spot in the yard for her to use as a pit stop. Let me tell you, this dog HATES snow and cold weather. I think her face in the attached photo says it all. And it was funny watching her try to remember where the back door was.
Yes, we find it ironic and amusing that we purchase a house in Texas so we can get away from Iowa winters and somehow the Iowa weather follows us. And yes, we intentionally left all the snow shovels in Iowa because we didn’t think we would ever use them here. But the important thing to note is that we know how to prepare for a winter storm warning had all the heavy winter coats, gloves and boots that the natives didn’t have. And we may have laughed as the weatherman explained what a “Winter Storm Warning” meant (Winter Storm Warning in Iowa means: January), and showed an ice scraper and demonstrated how to use it (I’m not even kidding). We did not lose our sense of humor through the Apocalypse, nor did we run out of food. We are grateful that it only lasted a week and it is 70 degrees outside right now.
