Or: How Did I Make It Through January and 19 Days of February
Without Losing My Mind?
SO, now it’s March 2. This post was supposed to be written about the 10th of February 2021.
So why is it March and I’m just now getting around to writing it?
Glad you asked! It is all 2020's fault. Really, it is.
We had enough of 2020’s guano and between the stroke of midnight on 31 December and one second into January 2021, we kicked ole 2020 out the door.
Tragically, the thing is, we didn’t lock that door.
Ole 2020 decided he wasn’t finished and tied up baby 2021 and put him in a closet with the door locked. You see, he was jealous that the new baby was wanted and he wasn’t.
We had spent all of 2020, from February on, trying to avoid getting any spot on the 2020 Bingo Card because it was just that kind of year.
From the start of the Covid-19, or as I like to put it, the newest addition to the state of the world, we have had one of THOSE years. All my conventions canceled, the schools closed, and we wore masks when we went out of the house.
At the most, we figured that this stuff would last a couple of weeks, or a month but by late spring our lives would go back to normal.
As I write this, Ole 2020 is laughing his ass off.
The joke's on me...and everyone else.
We knew it was real when the Houston Rodeo was cancelled in the first week. People were there, having fun, the livestock was being shown by kids who had worked all year. The retailers who work there have prepared all year. They make almost 80% of their sales (and sometimes 100%) during the rodeo. And that all got cancelled.
Then came the masks. At first it was “ok, this is a good idea.” Then it became “You really need to wear a mask.” And then it was “You can’t come in here and do anything without a mask. The city, the county, the state, and the federal governments all had the mandate: you need to wear a mask, not to protect you, but to protect others from you, just in case you have it and you don’t know.
I have known I don’t have it. I have only gone out of the house for 15 times since last February (2020), four of those were doctors visits, one was hospital for the surgery (and they tested me before I got in), and the another was Tuesday last week when my husband and I went to Galveston and got the first of the two Pfizer shots for this. I have a couple weeks until we get the next one; it takes two shots for coverage. The rest were driving around to…well, you’ll see in a couple of paragraphs what that was all about
And then there was this:
WORK AT HOME
Then came the “Work At Home” mandates. Bruce’s group at his company was already doing working from home three days a week anyway. The corporate came out and said that they were going to try to work at home for a week to see how it went. That lasted two days, then they told everyone to work at home until further notice.
So far it’s 2021 and they’ve been told they won’t be back in the office until June–if then. Looks pretty much like this is going to be an all the time thing.
This isn’t a bad thing, he’s here to help me when needed. But, at the same time, trying to keep the dogs quiet during meetings is nigh on impossible…they’re Shelties, they bark. It’s a normal thing.
Then there’s the luck spin of the irony wheel, the entire state of Texas, all 268,597 mi 2 and the 29 million humans gets word that we’re going to get a freeze. I live in Houston, we very rarely get down in the 30s, much less freezing.
We saw the weather guy tell us “Do the Three P Things: Pipes, Plants, and Pets.” That meant wrap your pipes, cover or bring in your plants, and bring in your pets. Most of the time we’re going to get a little little cold for a night or two and we’re done.
That’s when Baby 2021 untied himself, kicked down the door, and handed his glass to the old man 2020 and said “Hold my Beer and Watch This!”
We weren’t worried, we’ve gone through a bit of snow here. Got 2 inches in the early part of the 2000s, but most of the time it’s a bit of flurries at 29 degrees and it doesn’t stick.
So, we prepared for a little bit of cold, thinking “we got this.” No problem.
We weren’t concerned.
First it was the ice. The rain came and wet everything down really well. Then the temps plunged and all that rain froze.
There was 1 inch of black ice on the roads. Black ice is ice you can’t tell is there until you hit it and spin.
Of course, you get so many people (7 million) that don’t heed the “stay off the roads” and think that the ice won’t make any problems.
This was a couple of years ago. Transtar (the traffic monitor people) took a photo of the wrecks around town in the ice. And there wasn’t as much then as there is now.
Needless to say, I stay off the roads.
Now Just Remember–Ice + Bad Electrical Grid = Blackouts
Really. That’s the NEXT thing that happened in February, we lost electricity. This was a problem not just because the TV didn’t work and we couldn’t use the computer. This made life really miserable. We have what was touted in the ’70s as “the all-electric home”. No gas in the neighborhood. The air conditioner is electric. The appliances (including the stove) are electric.
Really we never thought this was going to go this crazy. And boy, we were wrong.
It was worse.
In other words, we had no light, no heat, and no way to cook anything. Thankfully we had stuff we could eat, bottled water left over from the hurricane supplies because the entire area went on a “boil water” notice and in many places, they had no water at all.
The electric was out for three days here at out house. Many were out for over a week. We would check the Center Point electric website from our phones, to see if the problem was resolving.
We got our power back about 3 days after it went dark. We went out about 7 with the pups to get warm, get gas, and track down some hot food. It was 37 degrees. We found FOOD and it was good.
On our way home, we started seeing porch lights. As we drove up to the house, the lights came on. As I was sitting there gathering my things, it went off. As I was cussing it, it came back on. I opened the car door and it went off.
Finally it stabilized. We were able to start the furnace and the house began getting warm again. We were not holding our breath that it’s wasn’t going off again, but hoping it wouldn’t. Both of us were on our last nerve, fighting depression.
And true to the weirdness of Texas weather, here is the forecast for Houston in the first ten days of March.
Notice how there are no freezing temperatures. TWO WEEKS after the worst ice storm and loss of heat we’ve had in over 20 years.
We were lucky, we had enough bottled water and food to last until the emergency was over. Many in Houston aren’t as lucky, between the Covid-19 layoffs and closures and then the ice storm, many are having to get in lines to get water and food. It’s really bad down here in some parts, even now.
We still have these distributions happening every day.
And then THIS happened!
To top all of the aforementioned ice storm/blackout off, our year-old Shetland Sheepdog, Sullivan (otherwise known as Sully), did the worst thing he’s done so far. We were asleep and evidently the cat crossed my bedside table, she seems to think that’s a personal road to our bed from the top of the little bookcases we keep her food bowl on (to keep the dogs out of it) and she knocked the glasses off. I keep my tablet and phone on the chargers on that table at night, I laid the glasses on top of them, thinking they were safe.
I woke up in the middle of the night, which I do often, and saw my water bottle on its side next to the electronics Thankful for the sports bottle valve, none of the water got out. I picked it up, took a drink, and went back to sleep.
When I got up, I grabbed everything and headed to the bathroom. That’s when I noticed I couldn’t see and had my husband go get my glasses that I had by everything else.
I need those glasses. I can see the television across the room just fine, it’s just a bit blurry. But reading and working on the computer, I need them because the world is so out of focus, I can’t do anything.
So Bruce went looking for them and couldn’t find them. He got a flashlight and got on the floor, looking under everything. No glasses. The floor isn’t easy for him and it’s a total “nope” with me, both of us are in our mid-60s with the muscles and such.
When we got me into the living room he got me in my cockpit, the chair with computer and such. Being unable to get around, I have it set up for staying a while. Since the house was still feeling like I should be having penguins over for lunch, I was wrapped up in the blankets.
Bruce decided to go out and check the back yard on the off-chance that Sully got them and played his game. We’ve had a lot of problems with him grabbing things (or attempting to) and with taking stuff outside. Sully has a way he thinks he’s playing. He grabs whatever it is, from paper to toys, and runs out the door immediately. It’s become a game, he grabs and Bruce usually chases him to get whatever it is.
He found the glasses, in the wet grass. Sully got them, evidently off the floor, and went out to chew them. The eye pads were gone, the ends of the glasses were gone and the frame was bent. And there is a few ‘chomp marks’ on the left lens. Bruce was pretty upset, we just got these in August and they’re expensive, I have to wear progressives. I patched them up with some Gorilla Tape and tried to bend them back so I can at least see today. He put the eye pads from an older pair of glasses so I could wear them.
We had to wait until the storm was over to get new ones, which took another week. I have the new ones and they’re going to stay in the case and put up where the cat can’t knock them off and Sully can’t get them.
So, this is why this post has been so late—the world interrupted my regularly scheduled schedule.
I will do another post next week.