Hard Freeze

One of the few perks of living on the Gulf is I don't have to deal with crappy winters....until this year. It has been down right frigged the last few weeks. Last Thursday we got to participate in state mandated rolling blackouts (which ironically didn't seem to "roll" through the high end neighborhoods). We had almost a full day of 10-15 minutes of power each hour. The state had 55 plants out of 550 go offline because of the "extreme" weather. Thank goodness our third-world neighbor Mexico has a stable grid and was willing to support us.

Erin's school was on the same power schedule. The district would not let them close since the school did not have any phone service (and were one of the few school affected). By the time I picked Erin up at 3pm the school was 60 degrees and the teachers (who had to entertain kids in the dark all day) looked like they needed a stiff drink.

I love how all the other children come barreling out of school dressed like they are embarking on an Eskimo expedition and Erin runs out in a t-shirt. The girls got some good Nordic blood in her :)

Then last Thursday night the temps dipped into the low 20's and after raining all day it...ohhhh... froze. 1/4" of ice completely shut down the city of Houston. No civic building were open, NASA closed, no schools, no Walmart. We got a call at 5:15am from the city saying the interstate was already closed at all entrances and exits due to accidents. Being a northerner it seemd a little extreme, but then again there was no way in heck I was going to go out on the road with 5 million people who have never driven on ice. So it ended up just being a nice relaxing day.

I have been trying diligently, and failing miserably, to keep my tropical plants alive. This is what my yard has looked like for the past week. So I have to say this is the first time in year I would like it to warm up...just a bit :)