@f00l During the first Cruz Cancun Vacation, I think we had two minor outages that lasted less than two hours each; not a big deal. Teddy-brain has already fled to California (and we don’t know how far beyond) this time, so at least he’s not here making things worse.
Houston’s school system has preemptively cancelled everything for Monday, probably on the assumption that folks will be busy dealing with stuff.
At least this time he had the sense to flee the state before the storm hit and before any possible power outage
I’m guessing that his wife now knows better than to broadcast their plans to flee in the middle of a statewide crisis to the entire moms’ neighborhood group
Because she now knows that somebody will screenshot that and share it with the news media
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Online I’m seeing him called Cancun Cruz or Fled Cruz
If Cruz never lives down his personal “state crisis Cancun exodus”, that will be OK with me
Nothing much yet going on here in Tulsa. The city crews are already out since midnight pre-treating roads and overpasses. City offices and courts are closing today at 1:00. They went ahead and left public schools open for today.
I think I’ve got enough groceries but I’ll probably think of something I wish I had once the snow starts.
Schools are also open in many places in Texas. I’ve driven past in schools where the parking lot are starting to fill up at 7:15 or so and I passed some school buses that looked full.
It’s supposed to rock below freezing for a few days around noon on Saturday or maybe in the early afternoon unfortunately precipitation is supposed to be going on quite a while after that
@f00l Ha ha! I don’t have a Siri, I have an Alexa. She was upgraded last week to be enhanced. Amazon wants to charge users a fee for the enhanced version but they’re saying Prime member get her for free.
I’m enjoying the novelty but damn if she ain’t a chatty Kathy now.
She’s conversational now and is a little annoying how peppy she is lol. But overall I think it’s an improvement. But I am, admittedly, easily amused.
@f00l@therealjrn I reluctantly have Prime because it’s an economic thing. I disdain Alexa immoderately even though I allegedly have at least two devices that are infestable with it. (I no longer remember which ones they are.) I have never used the similar capabilities on my phone; to the best of my ability, I have tried to turn them off, but Google Speech To Mangled Text still gets used to some extent. And it unhilariously gets things VERY wrong at times.
@f00l@werehatrack
I just use Alexa on my Echo devices. She’s handy there because she’ll play music, radio stations, and can tell me things faster than “looking it up.”
I don’t do speech-to-text generally so I don’t need her on my phone or any of my computers.
I used the Google smart speakers and “Hey Google” for quite a while, but I give Alexa a little better score than Hey Google. But even saying that, regular Alexa is pretty stupid as is Hey Google.
Alexa integrates with my Ring network as well and helps me watch the property. The new enhanced Alexa is more polite than the old stupid Alexa. I like to say thank you when she successfully does something and old Alexa would answer “no problem” which irritates me in particular in real life as well when humans say it. I always answer, good, I wasn’t looking for a problem whenever some lazy slacker hands me a cup of coffee or something and tells me “no problem” after I say thank you. I was reared to always say please, thank you and you’re welcome. New Alexa knows to say “you’re welcome.”
@f00l@werehatrack Beep boop. ALL the “assistants” listen ALL the time because they are listening for the trigger word.
I don’t know if any of big tech is any more trustworthy than another. I’m old enough and not involved in talking kidnapping plans (that you know of) out loud so I really don’t care.
My big sister is another story however, she’ll unplug any devices even in other people’s homes because she’s so wary.
¯\(ツ)/¯
I don’t use trigger words. I have Siri turned off unless I turn on the speech to text microphone button manually.
But for all, I know it listens all the time anyway
I have android devices and I have hey Google and all that stuff turned off permanently but for all I know they listen all the time anyway because it’s Google
@f00l@werehatrack
The TV show Person of Interest had a plot device of being able to clone a person’s phone and thereby be able to listen in surreptitiously to conversations. It wouldn’t surprise me if that is actually possible…
@f00l A news story a while back said that for some reason what really sells out around here is bananas. They decided they should start a “banana index.”
@f00l@Kyeh
I just did a quick search and it was first to come up.
Apparently the hippies have something called the “banana index” as well for climate change. Lots of hits on that, actually.
you know, since Texas, has no history of ever having severe winter weather. It’s completely understandable that the state legislature failed to insist that the supply sources and transmission lines be winterized, and that the power sources the adequate to deal with extreme demand and lasting very cold temperatures
How could state legislature expected to plan for extreme demand in cold weather when there was no history of cold weather in winter?
How could the state legislature think it would perhaps ne unreasonable to completely separate the magnificent Texas power grid from the nationwide grid in order to protect residents of Texas from losing power during a severe winter storm?
Really the Texas leg had no way of knowing that a severe winter storm could generate serious demands on the state power and that therefore emergency or back up power planning needed to happen in case a severe winter storm hit
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The power outages in 2021 in Texas didn’t happen because lines went down after trees fell on them or after they broke from the weight of the ice. Lines being underground or not was not the factor in the statewide grid failure.
The power outage has happened because Texas could enough power and then transmitted to deal with the demand
Nothing was properly winterized, and then the politician blamed the failure on the idea that solar and wind power failures were at fault.
Even though solar power and wind power work just fine in Alaska and Antarctica and somehow overcome the weather challenges there
But that’s not all that failed. Gas transmission lines failed because they were not winterized and water got into them, which is normally not a huge problem
But water freezes when it gets cold and when it freezes in gas line it blocks the gas.
So natural gas availability was severely limited because there is no way that Texas legislature could’ve predicted that weather in Texas would ever get that cold.
Also nuclear power plants at least in Texas use various diesel equipment as part of their daily operation and if the diesel equipment isn’t winterized, it freezes and can’t be used which sharply limits the utility of having a nuclear plant to generate power when the weather is very cold for an extended period
But once again since the weather in Texas had never been cold that way before in history, the legislature just didn’t think precautions were needed
Obviously, the state government and the legislature are completely innocent
Here are some photos or Laie Worth (part of Fort Worth) in Jan 1930.
This photos proves that winter really never comes to Texas and the 2021 was completely unpredictable
The ice that covered like worth in 1930 was only 7 inches or 8 inches thick
Palm tree weather. Practically Hawaii.
Only dozens of cars drove out on it before the cops in order to stop more people from driving out on the ice dynamited areas where people were driving out from and then rounded up to everybody else with cars and forced them off the ice
My father’s relative was one of the people who drove his car out on the ice that winter. My dad used to have a photo but I don’t know what happened to it.
Anyway don’t blame the legislature or the power grid planning people.
Statewide has ice storms also almost every year except for the extreme coast and Rio Grande areas
At least once every 10 to 20 years, the temperature will stay below freezing for a period of 5 to 15 days
So there is no way legislature could’ve known that the grid needed to be winterized and that under extreme demand, it would be nice to have backup source of power
I swear don’t blame the politicians.
Please! That would be so unfair!
It’s also obvious that lobbyists had nothing to do with the power grid failure.
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According to ERCOT (the state agency in charge of all this)
The grid is still not fully capable of withstanding a severe long winter storm
The Texas legislatore has been famous for being “almost entirely for sale” since at least 1900 or so.
In the 1930’s they were mostly “yellow dog Democrats” who were extremely conservative. The name comes from the saying ”we’d vote for a yellow dog if it were a Democrat”
This was in the era and the culture during which LBJ learned the Southern or Southwesten versions of lock-step party politics while other people of his generation leaned the other local variants of corruption.
There were the 3 B’s powering state politics then
Booze, Broads, Bags of Cash.
I don’t want to rant about the current situation (that’s another topic here at Meh) except to say that, hush hush whisper is, the way thongs get done now is quite similar to back then, only far more hidden and sophisticated in terms of being apparently legal or unprovable.
I don’t stay plugged into that whisper news circuit tho. So I’m claiming no special knowledge.
Oh well
One way or another it’s all messed up.
And the Perfect Texas Power Grid in the state famous for its energy industry and resources, is, by the wisdom of the politicians, separated from all the other grids.
So, you don’t get so share in our perfect grid and its triumphs and failures. And we don’t get to borrow energy from anyone else when it might be needed.
@f00l I thought all the electrical grid was shared until you just told me
Our local CBS affiliate news ran a story about Fort Worth, interestingly enough. It was showing that there are no generators to be had at the stores. I do hope your power stays on
I know a few biz critical locations places with industrial generators. Most local to FW places don’t have that setup afaik.
Part of the prob 5 years ago was that it was so cold for so long that with the grid down all the pipes froze in many places. All along I45 south of Dallas for instance.
This making it much worse.
Quite a few people died in Austin and Houston
Either fragile and hypothermia.
Or confused about carbon monoxide.
They wanted to get warm in their cars and didn’t realize you have to open the garage doors.
Fortunately FW only had rolling blackouts. The power only went off for maybe some hours then back on for more hours. Or similar depending on loc. Thats what I remember.
I don’t have an explanation for why Austin and residential Houston lost power completely for days. (Which is why people died there)
In Houston one of the awful things was that hospitals and airports kept power on (good) …
but the empty downtown high rise server farms also kept power and lights. (Bad, at least to me).
Downtown Houston was lit. (Few people live there)
Everyone else in Houston The Great Energy City froze.
Wow Texas in winter 2021 really showed up the rest of the world, huh!!!
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Yes the Texas energy grid is separated. Thx to legislators.
Because Texas is so perfect and great and wonderful and doesn’t want to share.
I just got back from a Walmart market run. I figured to get 4 more gallons of distilled water for the humidifier.
Store was calm, had milk back in stock and stuff. I decided I needed some medicinal potato chips, saltines, and pimento cheese dip. So all I have left to do is get a deposit ready for the bank, take it to said bank and shut off the water to the pool cabana/office.
/showme @therealjrn hunkered down in his warm house eating potato chips, saltines, and pimento cheese dip while ice begins to form on the water in the swimming pool outside
@ItalianScallion Here’s the image you requested for “@therealjrn hunkered down in his warm house eating potato chips, saltines, and pimento cheese dip…”
Of course I put off getting the snowblower ready for this winter and now up here in Boston, we’re facing 12+ inches of snow Sunday night into Monday morning. I have parts on order to “refurbish” the snowblower, but the new carburetor hasn’t even shipped yet. I’ll be spending my afternoon draining the carb and putting in a new spark plug with hopes it will finally start this year. And to top it all off, we’ve got a deep freeze coming: 4º tonight, 16º and windy tomorrow, 6º Saturday night, and then the snowstorm arrives. Woe is me.
My younger brother and I were both visiting in Boston immediately after the big storm hit while all the highways in MA were still officially closed.
We drove. While the highways were closed. The cops stopped us. We play “young and stupid Texans* and my younger bro showed the cops his appt letter for a Harvard interview.
(Heavy accents) ”Officer we’ve never seen so much snow! Wow! How do we get to Harvard? They’re expecting us “
It worked. Not that the cops believed us. Rather they thought we were funny and we didn’t get stuck being the first car except the cops after the first snowplow and so they let us go until we could far enough to connect to the subway system.
When bro showed up for his Harvard interview H admin people were astonished. He was the only appt who actually showed up … for many days.
They put him up on campus and i stayed w friends.
He got in. Prob because he showed up in the middle of a catastrophic blizzard and was good humored about it.
He got in to Harvard. Decided to go to Yale tho. : )
We were young and stupid and thought it was so much fun
I remember people snowshoeing to … is the name Steves? … in Somerville to get ice cream the day after the storm hit.
(That place was so worth it. Is it still there?)
So much fun to be young and stupid and students and not responsible for having to fix serious things or pay serious bills and we and our friends just thought it was a blast.
I remember the drifts in some places went up to the eaves of one storey houses. Kids had great fun jumping off the roofs or out of the 2ns storey windows into the snowdrifts.
Great story, @f00l! I vividly remember the Blizzard of '78. I was at college in Worcester and lived in a northern rural suburb of the city. I remember driving to WPI in the morning when it seemed like just an average snowstorm, probably a few inches, I guessed. By noon, the snow was coming down heavily and I decided to go home. I picked up a hitchhiker – I felt sorry for him trudging through the snow – and casually commented to him something about maybe it would be a big one. And then it came down… and kept coming… and kept coming. And like you said, f00l, a state of emergency was declared and driving was prohibited except for critical needs. Once the roads were open again, I remember seeing gigantic (maybe six feet tall?) construction-equipment-driven snowblowers moving slowly along the sides of highways because snowplows didn’t have anywhere to push the snow.
I know I have photos somewhere – prints, not image files – I’ll have to find, scan, and post.
And by the way, I spent a couple of hours messing with the snowblower this afternoon and got it going. Runs a bit rough, but it will do… I hope! Drained the carburetor, dealt with a frozen bolt holding the plastic shell in place, then replaced the spark plug and cleaned the ignition switch contacts. I’m not sure exactly what the problem was, but I’m leaning towards the dirty ignition switch contacts.
@f00l@ItalianScallion Steve himself eventually opened Herrell’s, a number of years after selling the Steve’s name to the people who eventually ruined it. Herrell’s is now a chain in Massachusetts and New York, while Steve’s is gone. Here’s an article with a lot more details:
The place I was staying in Somerville was near Steve’s so we went to get our ice cream with sprinkles and heath mixed in the next day after arrival
Since the streets were either closed or impassable we walked. My in hiking boots w frozen toesies. My friends in snowshoes because there were wilderness types.
The ice cream was terrific. Even in the cold.
We walked back to their place and gorged on made del scratch Spaghetti and garlic bread to warm up.
I’m glad Steve was able to keep offering great ice cream one way or another.
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At the time I lived in Manhattan. Little Italy to be precise.
It wasn’t as bad as Boston and was notably warmer (Manhattan always is warmer due to the extensive city infrastructure and due to being an island)
But the plows left snow piles up to 15 feet high. In Central Park the drifts were almost that high in some places.
The final disappearance of dirty snow piles in Manhattan took until late April I think.
I was kinda disappointed when the following years had less crazy winters. I was young enough to think extreme winter was an adventure.
@werehatrack Going to an ice cream shop during a blizzard, @f00l, makes you a New Englander at heart.
I think it wasn’t until near the end of June or maybe even into early July that the last of the piles where Boston dumped their snow finally melted, leaving all kinds of broken things behind.
@f00l@ItalianScallion When I was a student at the University of Rochester we often drove on the NY Thruway when it was technically closed due to snow (typically around Buffalo) to get home to Cleveland. No other real way to go. I didn’t have a car so lots of ride sharing back then. Of course we were all young and dumb back then and easily could have ended up in a snow bank. Except we didn’t. Never got stopped by police either even though we basically only saw a few cars and often cop cars on the on ramps.
As kids we’d take the snow plow piles in the church nextdoor’s parking lot, shovel it out to make an igloo and my parents would let us sleep in it on weekend nights. We had a blast.
Locally (central AL) the shitshow doesn’t start until Monday. Gonna throw some extra plastic sheeting over the plumeria to help insulate it inside the cold frame it’s sitting in, throw a couple of buckets upside down over the cilantro to make sure it doesn’t freeze to a clump, make sure all the hoses are disconnected from the faucets and most likely leave the ones in the poolhouse dripping. Probably take the potted palms and some young blueberry starts in pots I am transplanting into the shop so the roots don’t freeze.
Have some friends coming to visit from Wisconsin (headed to FT MEYERS) on Thursday and Friday. Hopefully by then road conditions won’t be too bad.
@chienfou I’m going to invert a big trash can over my pepper plant, with a 75W drop light inside to keep the temp acceptable. I have already tested this; it won’t overheat. I need to remember to bring the pressure washer inside this time because I don’t really want to buy another one. And I need to insulate the valves and disconnect the garden hoses. Amazon bubble envelopes and some duct tape will work for that.
Oh… and set a reminder to myself to turn the pool pump on overnight to circulate on those nights when it drops below 30!
Well, fuck me! Guess who forgot to check on the pump last night… Had turned it on manually and somehow got the times screwed up. Now we wait till tomorrow to see if it thaws out and leaks anywhere. Sigh.
I don’t really care if the pipe/fittings are a problem, but the pump & heater… that’s another $tory…
Sherpa blankets are the best. When it’s way cold I like to be under 10 of them or something.
Also I agree that it is not possible to have too many vacuum insulated tumblers. I have like maybe 6-8 from Stanley. Plus a few Yeti and HydeoFlask and whatever Buc-ee’s sells (Yukon I think) plus Rtic plus s whole bunch no name Stanley knockoffs.
I like the Stanley Iceflow ones the best.
Excellent quality.
Fun colors (so that I always want MORE).
Bendy straw capacity (so that it has a straw but also does not leak when turned upside down.
@f00l@Kyeh I got hooked on Swig mugs by meh. They’re nice. Plus I drove an hour out of my way to a Buc-ees on my last long road trip and picked up Halloween mugs and blankets. Their blankets are so soft! But yeah, I have some oversized Sherpa and velour blankets to share with the dog.
@f00l@sammydog01 Most of my fuzzy blankets come from Kohl’s; they go on sale for crazy low prices and every season they have new irresistible patterns on them.
So far the stores here are full of toilet paper but not bread. And likely the worst of the storm will be 20+ miles north of us (it keeps creeping north). Go figure.
I just hope this time they salt the highway off ramp that goes to several of the hospitals (last time they didn’t and even the salt truck couldn’t get up the hill - saw it and two ambulances and what turned out to be (per the news) around 100 cars stuck. Two RN’s with a big ass truck one by one pulled everyone up the hill rather than go to work on their shift. Apparently the hospital OK’ed them doing that. Made the news. I saw the mess (I live within 2 blocks of that mess up that same hill), went to the next highway exit with no hill and got home the back way.
The weather forecasters here in Houston are pretty much saying “It’s going to be effing cold, and maybe we’ll get some freezing rain but probably not a lot, but no snow, no way.”
If their accuracy lives up to historic standards, either we’ll get T-shirt weather or a foot of fluffy white crap. Or maybe both, in different ends of the city. (That happened, once.)
I am at the top edge of the weather and being in the Chicago region, 1-3" is nothing for us. It is cold, but nothing abhorrent. I do have a flight in the morning but heading to Florida well below the swatch of bad weather, so all is well for me tomorrow.
@Kyeh thank you!! I think I am good. It will be warmer tomorrow and the snow is not expected to start until after my flight leaves. I am flying out of Midway, which is so much hardier than O’Hare when it comes to flying in inclement weather. I am praying to the travel gods that I get out - I have a cruise Sunday, so I need to get to Tampa even if I have to drive it!
@cbilyak@Kyeh
Unfortunately the delays often pile up due to backups from other airports even if the one you’re flying into or out of is okay.
/giphy bon voyage
BTW which ship will you be on? We leave out of Miami in March on the Carnival Horizon for the granddaughter’s b’day present.
We’re going to plan to fly in the day before and spend the night just in case…
@chienfou@Kyeh plane is here, on time, and we board in 20 minutes.
On Celebrity Constellation, it is a music themed cruise www.the90scruise.com , Next month I do www.the80scruise.com on Royal Caribbean, then in April I do the Monsters of Rock cruise on NCCL. I love music and travel, when I can combine them, all the better!!!
Still waiting for a day that gets up to freezing. Nothing in the 10 day forecast but this week is teasing the low 20’s. Currently 7 with an expected high of 16. Few more inches of snow on top of the storm from last week but nothing crazy.
Lake Erie is around 95% froze. It has not been that high since 95-96. Generally means less snow and more cold for me. Spring will be late warming up until the lake unfreezes.
I am over it. I like to be warm. Without 15 million layers of clothing and a high heat bill.
I’m currently in Galveston awaiting to get on a cruise tomorrow. Did not intend to do a Fled Cruz as this has been booked for over a year. I am worried about my house and pool equipment. Since I’m not there I could not do my usual tarp and shop light set up. I wrapped the exposed pipes and filter as best I could and praying to the pool and weather gods that all will be okay.
I’m glad you may escape this is not a problem. You are a private citizen and you’re allowed to get out if you can and I hope you do.
Even though you didn’t book planning for that
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It’s a bit different when you accepted public office so that you could be a pompous ass on a grand scale as he is
Tell everyone else had to live as he does
And then, flee when his constituents are in a huge life-threatening emergency
That’s what he did that’s not what you were doing
You’re cool and I hope you have a great cruise (the other kind of cruise)
@f00l@ironcheftoni And once again he left his state on the verge of a storm, this time to Laguna Beach. At least this time he returned before the storm arrived, only to put his pomposity and odd sense of humor(?) on full display: “A storm is expected tomorrow night. But I am reliably informed by Twitter that if I simply raise up my hand on Texas soil, the storm will turn around & sunshine, rainbows & unicorns will emerge. Let it be.”
@ironcheftoni
I don’t generally drain any of my pool equipment since the number of freezes we have down here is pretty minimal. Instead I run my pool pump whenever the temps look like they’re going to be below 30 or so. (Though in all honesty I’ve had several times where they’ve gone below that to around 28 with no problem). It’s a saltwater pool and the pool equipment is protected from the wind, which I think helps. The last time I changed out the pump timer I installed one that has Wi-Fi capability. That means I can actually turn my pool on from anywhere I have service. It’s been handy a couple of times when we’ve been out of town when the temps took a sudden nose
dive so I was able to run them at night to make sure no to less.thing froze.
Enjoy your cruise. Hopefully the weather will be cooperative wherever you’re headed… Only 43 more days until ours!
Stopped at Aldi last night to pick up some sale ground beef; got the last 4 packs. I would not have but work has been blowing up every day, can’t go at lunchtime, get home too late. It was a zoo.
We’re not getting any precipitation, but its getting very cold (-11 to -3 today, similar tomorrow) and the weather and news have been hyping it endlessly even though its not that bad here (shitcagoland). Scaring people with everything when the only actual issue is a few days of bitter cold, which people do need to be careful of.
I switched the bulbs on the plant lights in the garage to incandescents and set time to always on to provide some warmth in there for the plants. one faucet upstairs is dripping.
Lots of dead cars (mine is fine). Only three of us made it to the office, the rest chickened out. On the bright side I got to wear my heavy coat for the first time this year! I like my heavy coat but unless its below 10F or so its too warm. Also ran the seat warmer in the ford for the first time this winter. Exciting stuff.
@duodec being in the lake effect zone from lake Michigan we really haven’t had a ton of snow for a decade. 2014 or 2015 was the last time I had to carve out a driveway.
This is definitely the coldest it’s been in a decade I think. Just brutal out there/worried about the outside cats
Well and they have shelters open for anyone who’s heat goes out and has no where to go. Or just homeless… I hope in Chicago. We don’t really have homeless people in the country but some always die when this happens… If they don’t get the notice of convinced to come in …
We downgraded from devastating impacts to damaging. Yay! Still expecting a half inch of freezing rain, poor trees, but better than the 3/4 inch they expected yesterday.
I scar d the hell out of myself when I had the choke on my snowblower open instead of closed when I was giving it a five minute warmup today. It usually starts on the first pull.
@Aetherwizard Yeah, my Toro snowblower has always started on the first or second pull even after sitting without being run even once between winters, but it does need to be primed and choked. After two pulls a few days ago and no start, and with 12 to 18 inches of snow predicted, it scared the hell out of me too. More pulls and nothing… until I did some “deferred maintenance” and now all is well for tomorrow and Monday.
Some rain here but not below freezing until 6am Sunday. What did my apartment building maintenance guy do? Spread 4 or 5 bags of salt on the parking lot prior to the rain starting. That was a waste. It all washed away. The idiot (and he is one) didn’t think that through.
@ItalianScallion That guy is dumb as a post. I did move my car so that when people slid around the parking lot (because why would they expect a problem if there is ice everywhere - heck no - lets still go run around town, tailgate, speed…) at least I am not downhill to be slid into.
@Kidsandliz 100% uncontaminated by stuff that’s only present in the modern oceans, but pure salt isn’t pink, so it’s 100% contaminated with something. From what I’ve read, the non-salt bits are a bit variable, but so far nobody seems to have found any that’s actively bad for people.
Whelp, that’s a wrap for Tulsa, Oklahoma. Snow’s over folks.
National Weather Service reported about 7.2 inches of snow total last I heard. We were very oh so lucky to not get the ice that I know others are dealing with.
Still housebound because my Corolla probably couldn’t handle it. Main streets were plowed yesterday, but we got like 5 inches more overnight.
The new landscaping crew is here and doing sidewalks right now!
Literally dodged the bullet. Nothing but snow and cold in Claremore OK, but we stocked up, and WFH, so no reason to leave until the (country) roads are cleared. Luck to you in the Southeast, esp around Charlotte.
@chienfou In an all-electric house, no less. And no generator. Thank goodness the husband was able to get out just enough to get to the “pro-pane an’ pro-pane assessories” store about a mile from us and found a ventless propane heater. NOW we have portable generators, so I’m a little less “gun-shy.” A little.
Mostly nothing to see here in Houston, if you don’t live in a low-bidder-designed-and-built apartment complex managed by idiots. Those can get exciting in freezing temps.
Yeah, this is a real winter storm up here around Boston with the most snow that we’ve had in a few years. At 8 pm I measured between 10 and 12 inches. The wind has picked up and the snow is supposed to be heavy overnight with another foot possible. Keeping my fingers crossed that my repaired snowblower will be ok tomorrow. Here are some photos looking out from my door.
Update: the storm was over early this morning. I ended up with mostly 12 inches and 14 in a few places. I think it was more but then it compressed and got heavier. The snowblower was not cooperating today. Yes, it started and ran (just) ok after I fiddled with the choke, but all of a sudden the rotor stopped turning so it wouldn’t throw snow. Upon further examination, I found that the drive belt was shredded and jammed behind a pulley. I ordered two belts that should be here Friday or Saturday and the carb should be here tomorrow, so this coming weekend snowblower repair is on my schedule. But you know what? In of it all, I still love New England and can’t imagine living anywhere else… except maybe part time in Italy. Oh, and no snow in the forecast that goes out to Sunday.
@chienfou You just reminded me that I want to get my Aerogarden going again, probably with basil (I love pesto) and parsley (so I don’t have to buy the usual big bunches and have most of it go bad).
@ItalianScallion
I was in our garden the other day and noticed that I still had a bunch of seed heads on the dead basil from last fall. Plucked a handful off and threw them in a container with some potting soil, got them wet, and covered them with a shower cap to make a mini greenhouse. Lo and behold I have a shit pot that’s sprouted. Score!
@ItalianScallion@Kyeh
Yeah, they’re just a few cents a piece if you buy them from the Dollar tree or a beauty supply store. Tho now I see that I can get them for two cents a piece in packs of 500 from walmart. When I bought this last batch the alternative were still branded Glad and much more expensive.
@Kyeh I haven’t seen photos of that, but it doesn’t surprise me. We’ve had quite some frigid weather up here and likely many other bodies of water are like that too!
@mycya4me@therealjrn As of 11 am MST, it’s only -26F (-32C) in Yellowknife. The coldest spot in Canada in this hour is, according to Environment Canada (their NWS), Thomsen River, Northern Territories at -41F (-40.6C), which as you can see is where the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales cross.
@therealjrn That is one end of the ICE Roads going north to resupply Native communities & Diamonds & other mines. It was featured in the TV series Ice Road Truckers.
I don’t want to move to Canada due to the Cold weather. I do have a FB friend that lives in Winnipeg, MB.
@mycya4me@therealjrn
Used to live on the Canadian border at International falls Minnesota. I’m painfully aware of the crossover between Celsius and Fahrenheit at -40.
My daughter lives in Nashville. Evidently about 200k people are “powerless” there due to ice coating limbs which then broke, fell and took out power lines and poles. Her power went off overnight Saturday to Sunday. Thankfully they have a gas range so they’re able to cook still. Doesn’t bode well for the next few days though.
@chienfou If she can get to a propane store they might still have a ventless propane heater there. Safe to use indoors. Saved our bacon during that month-without-power in 2006.
I hope in prep for next year they get one of those ventless propane heats for emergencies. And maybe a generator capable of powering the fridge/freezer.
She and her people have my total sympathy. I hope they are offered warmer place to sleep by friends so that they can take turns not being cold in the dark.
Or wise when a storm is forecast rent an RV park it in the drive and live in it for as long as needed.
@f00l
They’re staying at a friend’s house in his basement Airbnb apartment. She sent me a list of probable recovery dates by zip code and hers looks like it could be as late as a week from now! That’s crazy
Well, we have another blast coming our way. Unseasonably low temps for the next weekend here in Central Alabama. Cold and breezy today with a HIGH just under freezing (current wind chill 16). Overnight low supposed to be around 15 to 17 actual temp (wind chill around 5 to 7°) . Normal temps are mid 50s during the day and slightly above freezing at night.
@chienfou@f00l@Kyeh I have not heard about any snow in the Tampa area yet but the next couple days could possibly bring a few flakes. Not that we need anymore flakes around here.
Amazon’s been coming since Tuesday. I’ve been driving since Wednesday. Where the hell is the USPS? They haven’t delivered mail in a week. I hope they’re saving it up and not dumping it in a snow bank.
@f00l Our schools are closed at least through tomorrow, so glad my kids are adults. I was following a mail truck yesterday (I guess some people are getting mail) and it spun out on a perfectly dry road by accelerating and turning a super sharp left. I’m not sure if he didn’t know how to drive or just wanted to call in and say the roads are unsafe. Or maybe it was the chains on the back tires, do they grip poorly on asphalt?
Snow?
/ me goes outside in shorts again
@yakkoTDI yep
or no sleeves and sandals.
Update! There was more wind than expected on my afternoon bicycle ride.
@yakkoTDI grr
LOL
/giphy “icy bridge troll”
Not expecting anything exciting here in Houston.
@werehatrack
I hope you don’t get the excitement of a state wide we long power failure
/image Houston “no power”
@f00l During the first Cruz Cancun Vacation, I think we had two minor outages that lasted less than two hours each; not a big deal. Teddy-brain has already fled to California (and we don’t know how far beyond) this time, so at least he’s not here making things worse.
Houston’s school system has preemptively cancelled everything for Monday, probably on the assumption that folks will be busy dealing with stuff.
@werehatrack
At least this time he had the sense to flee the state before the storm hit and before any possible power outage
I’m guessing that his wife now knows better than to broadcast their plans to flee in the middle of a statewide crisis to the entire moms’ neighborhood group
Because she now knows that somebody will screenshot that and share it with the news media
—
Online I’m seeing him called Cancun Cruz or Fled Cruz
If Cruz never lives down his personal “state crisis Cancun exodus”, that will be OK with me
@f00l @werehatrack https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5704255-ted-cruz-texas-winter-storm/amp/
Nothing much yet going on here in Tulsa. The city crews are already out since midnight pre-treating roads and overpasses. City offices and courts are closing today at 1:00. They went ahead and left public schools open for today.
I think I’ve got enough groceries but I’ll probably think of something I wish I had once the snow starts.
@therealjrn
Schools are also open in many places in Texas. I’ve driven past in schools where the parking lot are starting to fill up at 7:15 or so and I passed some school buses that looked full.
So far just rain and fall and well above freezing
Photo from north of Austin along 35
It’s supposed to rock below freezing for a few days around noon on Saturday or maybe in the early afternoon unfortunately precipitation is supposed to be going on quite a while after that
@f00l
I dictated that remark and didn’t proofread it
RAIN AND FOG
It’s all Apple fault, of course
@f00l
@therealjrn
Siri? I need you to transcribe correctly
Also Siri don’t become an AI slop monster.
What’s that?
You say you already are an AI slop monster? Just not as obviously so as Grok or Open AI or your other slop competitors?
.Fuck you. Siri
Just saying’
@f00l Ha ha! I don’t have a Siri, I have an Alexa. She was upgraded last week to be enhanced. Amazon wants to charge users a fee for the enhanced version but they’re saying Prime member get her for free.
I’m enjoying the novelty but damn if she ain’t a chatty Kathy now.
She’s conversational now and is a little annoying how peppy she is lol. But overall I think it’s an improvement. But I am, admittedly, easily amused.
@f00l @therealjrn I reluctantly have Prime because it’s an economic thing. I disdain Alexa immoderately even though I allegedly have at least two devices that are infestable with it. (I no longer remember which ones they are.) I have never used the similar capabilities on my phone; to the best of my ability, I have tried to turn them off, but Google Speech To Mangled Text still gets used to some extent. And it unhilariously gets things VERY wrong at times.
@f00l @werehatrack
I just use Alexa on my Echo devices. She’s handy there because she’ll play music, radio stations, and can tell me things faster than “looking it up.”
I don’t do speech-to-text generally so I don’t need her on my phone or any of my computers.
I used the Google smart speakers and “Hey Google” for quite a while, but I give Alexa a little better score than Hey Google. But even saying that, regular Alexa is pretty stupid as is Hey Google.
Alexa integrates with my Ring network as well and helps me watch the property. The new enhanced Alexa is more polite than the old stupid Alexa. I like to say thank you when she successfully does something and old Alexa would answer “no problem” which irritates me in particular in real life as well when humans say it. I always answer, good, I wasn’t looking for a problem whenever some lazy slacker hands me a cup of coffee or something and tells me “no problem” after I say thank you. I was reared to always say please, thank you and you’re welcome. New Alexa knows to say “you’re welcome.”
I think I’m turning into my father.
@therealjrn @werehatrack
/giphy get off my lawn
@therealjrn @werehatrack
I don’t use Alexa because even though I have prime for various reasons, I don’t want Amazon listening to me all the time
I don’t use hey Google, although the ones or twice I have used it. It is faster and more accurate than in terms of transcribing.
I’d like to think that Apple will be a little more respectful of privacy than some of the other companies, but maybe that’s just a myth
The only time I use, Siri is when I just click the speech to text button and get it to transcribe something or other because I’m driving or similar
That way, I can answer text messages or information request. Somebody made a phone call by simply clicking the mic button and speaking my response.
Except then somebody might and maybe 25% of the instances have to call me back because Siri transcribed something from Outer space
@f00l @werehatrack Beep boop.
ALL the “assistants” listen ALL the time because they are listening for the trigger word.
I don’t know if any of big tech is any more trustworthy than another. I’m old enough and not involved in talking kidnapping plans (that you know of) out loud so I really don’t care.
My big sister is another story however, she’ll unplug any devices even in other people’s homes because she’s so wary.
¯\(ツ)/¯
@therealjrn @werehatrack
I don’t use trigger words. I have Siri turned off unless I turn on the speech to text microphone button manually.
But for all, I know it listens all the time anyway
I have android devices and I have hey Google and all that stuff turned off permanently but for all I know they listen all the time anyway because it’s Google
And we are a long, long way from “don’t be evil“
In other words, I’m taking a fools precautions
And I’m probably getting a fool’s results
@f00l @werehatrack
The TV show Person of Interest had a plot device of being able to clone a person’s phone and thereby be able to listen in surreptitiously to conversations. It wouldn’t surprise me if that is actually possible…
@therealjrn @werehatrack
I recently discovered that show and have watched the first season of it. I love that show.
@f00l @werehatrack It’s a great show, I agree!
@f00l yep
@f00l A news story a while back said that for some reason what really sells out around here is bananas. They decided they should start a “banana index.”
@f00l @Kyeh Who knew? Interesting.
@f00l @therealjrn Oh, Washington too?!
@f00l @Kyeh
I just did a quick search and it was first to come up.
Apparently the hippies have something called the “banana index” as well for climate change. Lots of hits on that, actually.
Prediction maps so that we can anticipate all the “fun”
Overall
@f00l
Snow predictions
@f00l
Ice predictions
Y’all are just going to have to do me a favor and keep your ice down South, m’kay?
@therealjrn
I don’t know if I can control that. But … the snow/ice division line is supposed to kinda run along I40 until way east of us.
So you may just get snow.
—
But hey! Count your blessings!
If the Texas power grid fails, you won’t have to share the experience!
@f00l That’s really my only concern. I’m all set but I need electricity to run things. Our utilities are underground here but it can and does go down.
you know, since Texas, has no history of ever having severe winter weather. It’s completely understandable that the state legislature failed to insist that the supply sources and transmission lines be winterized, and that the power sources the adequate to deal with extreme demand and lasting very cold temperatures
How could state legislature expected to plan for extreme demand in cold weather when there was no history of cold weather in winter?
How could the state legislature think it would perhaps ne unreasonable to completely separate the magnificent Texas power grid from the nationwide grid in order to protect residents of Texas from losing power during a severe winter storm?
Really the Texas leg had no way of knowing that a severe winter storm could generate serious demands on the state power and that therefore emergency or back up power planning needed to happen in case a severe winter storm hit
—
The power outages in 2021 in Texas didn’t happen because lines went down after trees fell on them or after they broke from the weight of the ice. Lines being underground or not was not the factor in the statewide grid failure.
The power outage has happened because Texas could enough power and then transmitted to deal with the demand
Nothing was properly winterized, and then the politician blamed the failure on the idea that solar and wind power failures were at fault.
Even though solar power and wind power work just fine in Alaska and Antarctica and somehow overcome the weather challenges there
But that’s not all that failed. Gas transmission lines failed because they were not winterized and water got into them, which is normally not a huge problem
But water freezes when it gets cold and when it freezes in gas line it blocks the gas.
So natural gas availability was severely limited because there is no way that Texas legislature could’ve predicted that weather in Texas would ever get that cold.
Also nuclear power plants at least in Texas use various diesel equipment as part of their daily operation and if the diesel equipment isn’t winterized, it freezes and can’t be used which sharply limits the utility of having a nuclear plant to generate power when the weather is very cold for an extended period
But once again since the weather in Texas had never been cold that way before in history, the legislature just didn’t think precautions were needed
Obviously, the state government and the legislature are completely innocent
Here are some photos or Laie Worth (part of Fort Worth) in Jan 1930.
This photos proves that winter really never comes to Texas and the 2021 was completely unpredictable
The ice that covered like worth in 1930 was only 7 inches or 8 inches thick
Palm tree weather. Practically Hawaii.
Only dozens of cars drove out on it before the cops in order to stop more people from driving out on the ice dynamited areas where people were driving out from and then rounded up to everybody else with cars and forced them off the ice
My father’s relative was one of the people who drove his car out on the ice that winter. My dad used to have a photo but I don’t know what happened to it.
Anyway don’t blame the legislature or the power grid planning people.
@f00l
Here is another photo of Lake Worth in 1930
More proof that Texas never has winter
@f00l
Texas 2023
@f00l
Texas 2011
@f00l
North Texas has ice storms almost every winter
Statewide has ice storms also almost every year except for the extreme coast and Rio Grande areas
At least once every 10 to 20 years, the temperature will stay below freezing for a period of 5 to 15 days
So there is no way legislature could’ve known that the grid needed to be winterized and that under extreme demand, it would be nice to have backup source of power
I swear don’t blame the politicians.
Please! That would be so unfair!
It’s also obvious that lobbyists had nothing to do with the power grid failure.
—-
According to ERCOT (the state agency in charge of all this)
The grid is still not fully capable of withstanding a severe long winter storm
https://www.forbes.com/sites/edhirs/2024/12/09/after-4-years-and-billions-of-dollars-the-texas-grid-is-not-fixed/
@f00l @therealjrn
We all know the Texas is perfect or nearly so. Just listen to the propaganda and marketing!
Some people suspect that there might be one or two tiny flaws in this state
Flaws that possibly don’t exist in other states that are otherwise politically similar
But it’s so very unfair to the incomparable greatness of the state of Texas that anybody should think that way.
Texas is obviously completely wonderful.
/image wonderful Texas legislature
Grr. Assholes.
All of them.
@therealjrn
The Texas legislatore has been famous for being “almost entirely for sale” since at least 1900 or so.
In the 1930’s they were mostly “yellow dog Democrats” who were extremely conservative. The name comes from the saying
”we’d vote for a yellow dog if it were a Democrat”
This was in the era and the culture during which LBJ learned the Southern or Southwesten versions of lock-step party politics while other people of his generation leaned the other local variants of corruption.
There were the 3 B’s powering state politics then
Booze, Broads, Bags of Cash.
I don’t want to rant about the current situation (that’s another topic here at Meh) except to say that, hush hush whisper is, the way thongs get done now is quite similar to back then, only far more hidden and sophisticated in terms of being apparently legal or unprovable.
I don’t stay plugged into that whisper news circuit tho. So I’m claiming no special knowledge.
Oh well
One way or another it’s all messed up.
And the Perfect Texas Power Grid in the state famous for its energy industry and resources, is, by the wisdom of the politicians, separated from all the other grids.
So, you don’t get so share in our perfect grid and its triumphs and failures. And we don’t get to borrow energy from anyone else when it might be needed.
Be happy for that.
@f00l I thought all the electrical grid was shared until you just told me
Our local CBS affiliate news ran a story about Fort Worth, interestingly enough. It was showing that there are no generators to be had at the stores. I do hope your power stays on
@therealjrn
Yeah me too. Re power grid.
I know a few biz critical locations places with industrial generators. Most local to FW places don’t have that setup afaik.
Part of the prob 5 years ago was that it was so cold for so long that with the grid down all the pipes froze in many places. All along I45 south of Dallas for instance.
This making it much worse.
Quite a few people died in Austin and Houston
Either fragile and hypothermia.
Or confused about carbon monoxide.
They wanted to get warm in their cars and didn’t realize you have to open the garage doors.
Fortunately FW only had rolling blackouts. The power only went off for maybe some hours then back on for more hours. Or similar depending on loc. Thats what I remember.
I don’t have an explanation for why Austin and residential Houston lost power completely for days. (Which is why people died there)
In Houston one of the awful things was that hospitals and airports kept power on (good) …
but the empty downtown high rise server farms also kept power and lights. (Bad, at least to me).
Downtown Houston was lit. (Few people live there)
Everyone else in Houston The Great Energy City froze.
Wow Texas in winter 2021 really showed up the rest of the world, huh!!!
—-
Yes the Texas energy grid is separated. Thx to legislators.
Because Texas is so perfect and great and wonderful and doesn’t want to share.
F you, Texas legislature.
I just got back from a Walmart market run. I figured to get 4 more gallons of distilled water for the humidifier.
Store was calm, had milk back in stock and stuff. I decided I needed some medicinal potato chips, saltines, and pimento cheese dip. So all I have left to do is get a deposit ready for the bank, take it to said bank and shut off the water to the pool cabana/office.
Then I think I’m done and settled in.
@therealjrn
You prob needed to get more junk food but that sounds like an excellent grocery run.
/giphy “junk food”
@f00l Well, it’s an emergency situation. You can’t expect me to live like an animal can you?
@f00l @therealjrn
/showme @therealjrn hunkered down in his warm house eating potato chips, saltines, and pimento cheese dip while ice begins to form on the water in the swimming pool outside
@ItalianScallion Here’s the image you requested for “@therealjrn hunkered down in his warm house eating potato chips, saltines, and pimento cheese dip…”
@ItalianScallion @mediocrebot Uncanny resemblance!! Ha ha.
@ItalianScallion @mediocrebot @therealjrn
Brad Pitt cannot compete
Of course I put off getting the snowblower ready for this winter and now up here in Boston, we’re facing 12+ inches of snow Sunday night into Monday morning. I have parts on order to “refurbish” the snowblower, but the new carburetor hasn’t even shipped yet. I’ll be spending my afternoon draining the carb and putting in a new spark plug with hopes it will finally start this year. And to top it all off, we’ve got a deep freeze coming: 4º tonight, 16º and windy tomorrow, 6º Saturday night, and then the snowstorm arrives. Woe is me.
@ItalianScallion
Were you in Boston in 1978?
Remember this?
@f00l @ItalianScallion
@ItalianScallion
My younger brother and I were both visiting in Boston immediately after the big storm hit while all the highways in MA were still officially closed.
We drove. While the highways were closed. The cops stopped us. We play “young and stupid Texans* and my younger bro showed the cops his appt letter for a Harvard interview.
(Heavy accents) ”Officer we’ve never seen so much snow! Wow! How do we get to Harvard? They’re expecting us “
It worked. Not that the cops believed us. Rather they thought we were funny and we didn’t get stuck being the first car except the cops after the first snowplow and so they let us go until we could far enough to connect to the subway system.
When bro showed up for his Harvard interview H admin people were astonished. He was the only appt who actually showed up … for many days.
They put him up on campus and i stayed w friends.
He got in. Prob because he showed up in the middle of a catastrophic blizzard and was good humored about it.
He got in to Harvard. Decided to go to Yale tho. : )
We were young and stupid and thought it was so much fun
I remember people snowshoeing to … is the name Steves? … in Somerville to get ice cream the day after the storm hit.
(That place was so worth it. Is it still there?)
So much fun to be young and stupid and students and not responsible for having to fix serious things or pay serious bills and we and our friends just thought it was a blast.
I remember the drifts in some places went up to the eaves of one storey houses. Kids had great fun jumping off the roofs or out of the 2ns storey windows into the snowdrifts.
I might have been such a kid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_United_States_blizzard_of_1978
Great story, @f00l! I vividly remember the Blizzard of '78. I was at college in Worcester and lived in a northern rural suburb of the city. I remember driving to WPI in the morning when it seemed like just an average snowstorm, probably a few inches, I guessed. By noon, the snow was coming down heavily and I decided to go home. I picked up a hitchhiker – I felt sorry for him trudging through the snow – and casually commented to him something about maybe it would be a big one. And then it came down… and kept coming… and kept coming. And like you said, f00l, a state of emergency was declared and driving was prohibited except for critical needs. Once the roads were open again, I remember seeing gigantic (maybe six feet tall?) construction-equipment-driven snowblowers moving slowly along the sides of highways because snowplows didn’t have anywhere to push the snow.
I know I have photos somewhere – prints, not image files – I’ll have to find, scan, and post.
Thanks for the memories!
And by the way, I spent a couple of hours messing with the snowblower this afternoon and got it going. Runs a bit rough, but it will do… I hope! Drained the carburetor, dealt with a frozen bolt holding the plastic shell in place, then replaced the spark plug and cleaned the ignition switch contacts. I’m not sure exactly what the problem was, but I’m leaning towards the dirty ignition switch contacts.
@f00l @ItalianScallion Steve himself eventually opened Herrell’s, a number of years after selling the Steve’s name to the people who eventually ruined it. Herrell’s is now a chain in Massachusetts and New York, while Steve’s is gone. Here’s an article with a lot more details:
https://www.cambridgeday.com/2009/09/18/r-i-p-herrells-ice-cream-a-toast-from-toscaninis/
@ItalianScallion @werehatrack
The place I was staying in Somerville was near Steve’s so we went to get our ice cream with sprinkles and heath mixed in the next day after arrival
Since the streets were either closed or impassable we walked. My in hiking boots w frozen toesies. My friends in snowshoes because there were wilderness types.
The ice cream was terrific. Even in the cold.
We walked back to their place and gorged on made del scratch Spaghetti and garlic bread to warm up.
I’m glad Steve was able to keep offering great ice cream one way or another.
—-
At the time I lived in Manhattan. Little Italy to be precise.
It wasn’t as bad as Boston and was notably warmer (Manhattan always is warmer due to the extensive city infrastructure and due to being an island)
But the plows left snow piles up to 15 feet high. In Central Park the drifts were almost that high in some places.
The final disappearance of dirty snow piles in Manhattan took until late April I think.
I was kinda disappointed when the following years had less crazy winters. I was young enough to think extreme winter was an adventure.
@werehatrack Going to an ice cream shop during a blizzard, @f00l, makes you a New Englander at heart.
I think it wasn’t until near the end of June or maybe even into early July that the last of the piles where Boston dumped their snow finally melted, leaving all kinds of broken things behind.
@f00l @ItalianScallion When I was a student at the University of Rochester we often drove on the NY Thruway when it was technically closed due to snow (typically around Buffalo) to get home to Cleveland. No other real way to go. I didn’t have a car so lots of ride sharing back then. Of course we were all young and dumb back then and easily could have ended up in a snow bank. Except we didn’t. Never got stopped by police either even though we basically only saw a few cars and often cop cars on the on ramps.
As kids we’d take the snow plow piles in the church nextdoor’s parking lot, shovel it out to make an igloo and my parents would let us sleep in it on weekend nights. We had a blast.
@Kidsandliz
The igloo thing sounds like prep for some of your upcoming careers!
@f00l @ItalianScallion
I love reading stories like that bc it just seems so bizarre living in Michigan.
Locally (central AL) the shitshow doesn’t start until Monday. Gonna throw some extra plastic sheeting over the plumeria to help insulate it inside the cold frame it’s sitting in, throw a couple of buckets upside down over the cilantro to make sure it doesn’t freeze to a clump, make sure all the hoses are disconnected from the faucets and most likely leave the ones in the poolhouse dripping. Probably take the potted palms and some young blueberry starts in pots I am transplanting into the shop so the roots don’t freeze.
Have some friends coming to visit from Wisconsin (headed to FT MEYERS) on Thursday and Friday. Hopefully by then road conditions won’t be too bad.
@chienfou
Oh… and set a reminder to myself to turn the pool pump on overnight to circulate on those nights when it drops below 30!
@chienfou I’m going to invert a big trash can over my pepper plant, with a 75W drop light inside to keep the temp acceptable. I have already tested this; it won’t overheat. I need to remember to bring the pressure washer inside this time because I don’t really want to buy another one. And I need to insulate the valves and disconnect the garden hoses. Amazon bubble envelopes and some duct tape will work for that.
@werehatrack
So far, still so good. Pretty accurate with low of 41 last night according to my indoor/outdoor thermometer. Due for rain tonight.
@chienfou
Well, fuck me! Guess who forgot to check on the pump last night… Had turned it on manually and somehow got the times screwed up. Now we wait till tomorrow to see if it thaws out and leaks anywhere. Sigh.
I don’t really care if the pipe/fittings are a problem, but the pump & heater… that’s another $tory…
I may be a hoarder but I’ll be a hoarder with a ton of hot water in mediocre Tervis bottles.
We’re in the major severity index zone so it may be very cold in my house for a long time.
@sammydog01 That’s an impressive collection of bottles!
@Kyeh They were a week away from an embarrassing trip to goodwill and now I’m a genius.
Also our NWS warning uses the word “devastating”.
@sammydog01
Also you’ve reinforced my inability to get rid of anything ever.
@Kyeh I KNOW, RIGHT? I have a pretty impressive collection of unused fuzzy blankets from impulse buys, we may need them. Yay me!
@Kyeh @sammydog01 “Better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.”
@sammydog01 I LOVE fuzzy blankets, and I have quite the collection too.
@Kyeh @sammydog01
Sherpa blankets are the best. When it’s way cold I like to be under 10 of them or something.
Also I agree that it is not possible to have too many vacuum insulated tumblers. I have like maybe 6-8 from Stanley. Plus a few Yeti and HydeoFlask and whatever Buc-ee’s sells (Yukon I think) plus Rtic plus s whole bunch no name Stanley knockoffs.
I like the Stanley Iceflow ones the best.
Excellent quality.
Fun colors (so that I always want MORE).
Bendy straw capacity (so that it has a straw but also does not leak when turned upside down.
—-
I’m not a hoarder! Not! I swear, Precious!
Precious must believe I’m not a hoarder!
/giphy “not a hoarder”
@f00l @Kyeh I got hooked on Swig mugs by meh. They’re nice. Plus I drove an hour out of my way to a Buc-ees on my last long road trip and picked up Halloween mugs and blankets. Their blankets are so soft! But yeah, I have some oversized Sherpa and velour blankets to share with the dog.
@f00l @sammydog01 Most of my fuzzy blankets come from Kohl’s; they go on sale for crazy low prices and every season they have new irresistible patterns on them.
So far the stores here are full of toilet paper but not bread. And likely the worst of the storm will be 20+ miles north of us (it keeps creeping north). Go figure.
I just hope this time they salt the highway off ramp that goes to several of the hospitals (last time they didn’t and even the salt truck couldn’t get up the hill - saw it and two ambulances and what turned out to be (per the news) around 100 cars stuck. Two RN’s with a big ass truck one by one pulled everyone up the hill rather than go to work on their shift. Apparently the hospital OK’ed them doing that. Made the news. I saw the mess (I live within 2 blocks of that mess up that same hill), went to the next highway exit with no hill and got home the back way.
The weather forecasters here in Houston are pretty much saying “It’s going to be effing cold, and maybe we’ll get some freezing rain but probably not a lot, but no snow, no way.”
If their accuracy lives up to historic standards, either we’ll get T-shirt weather or a foot of fluffy white crap. Or maybe both, in different ends of the city. (That happened, once.)
@werehatrack
/giphy it’s so fluffy!
@therealjrn @werehatrack
I think around Texas and points north the ice line will be close to I40.
North of that snow. South of that ice.
shit.
I’m bracing with lots of supplies. Lots of booze. I know not to drink if it gets too cold. But I’ve got it.
I am at the top edge of the weather and being in the Chicago region, 1-3" is nothing for us. It is cold, but nothing abhorrent. I do have a flight in the morning but heading to Florida well below the swatch of bad weather, so
all is well for me tomorrow.
@cbilyak I hope your flight doesn’t get canceled, though!
@Kyeh thank you!! I think I am good. It will be warmer tomorrow and the snow is not expected to start until after my flight leaves. I am flying out of Midway, which is so much hardier than O’Hare when it comes to flying in inclement weather. I am praying to the travel gods that I get out - I have a cruise Sunday, so I need to get to Tampa even if I have to drive it!
@cbilyak
I hope it works out!
@cbilyak @Kyeh
Unfortunately the delays often pile up due to backups from other airports even if the one you’re flying into or out of is okay.
/giphy bon voyage
BTW which ship will you be on? We leave out of Miami in March on the Carnival Horizon for the granddaughter’s b’day present.
We’re going to plan to fly in the day before and spend the night just in case…
@chienfou @Kyeh plane is here, on time, and we board in 20 minutes.
On Celebrity Constellation, it is a music themed cruise www.the90scruise.com , Next month I do www.the80scruise.com on Royal Caribbean, then in April I do the Monsters of Rock cruise on NCCL. I love music and travel, when I can combine them, all the better!!!
@cbilyak @Kyeh
Have a great time. Does sound like fun.
Brrr. Snow estimate is slowly going down, 7-9 now. It was 10-12 and 7-9 Monday so could be worse. We shall see how close the guess turns out.
Still waiting for a day that gets up to freezing. Nothing in the 10 day forecast but this week is teasing the low 20’s. Currently 7 with an expected high of 16. Few more inches of snow on top of the storm from last week but nothing crazy.
Lake Erie is around 95% froze. It has not been that high since 95-96. Generally means less snow and more cold for me. Spring will be late warming up until the lake unfreezes.
I am over it. I like to be warm. Without 15 million layers of clothing and a high heat bill.
I’m currently in Galveston awaiting to get on a cruise tomorrow. Did not intend to do a Fled Cruz as this has been booked for over a year. I am worried about my house and pool equipment. Since I’m not there I could not do my usual tarp and shop light set up. I wrapped the exposed pipes and filter as best I could and praying to the pool and weather gods that all will be okay.
@ironcheftoni
Ha ha
I didn’t know what that meant so I had to look it up :snicker: May the travel gods smile and the road rise up to meet you. 
️ 
️
@ironcheftoni
That individual is AKA Cancun Cruz
I’m glad you may escape this is not a problem. You are a private citizen and you’re allowed to get out if you can and I hope you do.
Even though you didn’t book planning for that
—-
It’s a bit different when you accepted public office so that you could be a pompous ass on a grand scale as he is
Tell everyone else had to live as he does
And then, flee when his constituents are in a huge life-threatening emergency
That’s what he did that’s not what you were doing
You’re cool and I hope you have a great cruise (the other kind of cruise)
@f00l @ironcheftoni And once again he left his state on the verge of a storm, this time to Laguna Beach. At least this time he returned before the storm arrived, only to put his pomposity and odd sense of humor(?) on full display: “A storm is expected tomorrow night. But I am reliably informed by Twitter that if I simply raise up my hand on Texas soil, the storm will turn around & sunshine, rainbows & unicorns will emerge. Let it be.”
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jan. 23, 2026
@ironcheftoni
I don’t generally drain any of my pool equipment since the number of freezes we have down here is pretty minimal. Instead I run my pool pump whenever the temps look like they’re going to be below 30 or so. (Though in all honesty I’ve had several times where they’ve gone below that to around 28 with no problem). It’s a saltwater pool and the pool equipment is protected from the wind, which I think helps. The last time I changed out the pump timer I installed one that has Wi-Fi capability. That means I can actually turn my pool on from anywhere I have service. It’s been handy a couple of times when we’ve been out of town when the temps took a sudden nose
dive so I was able to run them at night to make sure no to less.thing froze.
Enjoy your cruise. Hopefully the weather will be cooperative wherever you’re headed… Only 43 more days until ours!
Stopped at Aldi last night to pick up some sale ground beef; got the last 4 packs. I would not have but work has been blowing up every day, can’t go at lunchtime, get home too late. It was a zoo.
We’re not getting any precipitation, but its getting very cold (-11 to -3 today, similar tomorrow) and the weather and news have been hyping it endlessly even though its not that bad here (shitcagoland). Scaring people with everything when the only actual issue is a few days of bitter cold, which people do need to be careful of.
I switched the bulbs on the plant lights in the garage to incandescents and set time to always on to provide some warmth in there for the plants. one faucet upstairs is dripping.
Lots of dead cars (mine is fine). Only three of us made it to the office, the rest chickened out. On the bright side I got to wear my heavy coat for the first time this year! I like my heavy coat but unless its below 10F or so its too warm. Also ran the seat warmer in the ford for the first time this winter. Exciting stuff.
@duodec
Sometimes it’s the little things…
@duodec being in the lake effect zone from lake Michigan we really haven’t had a ton of snow for a decade. 2014 or 2015 was the last time I had to carve out a driveway.
This is definitely the coldest it’s been in a decade I think. Just brutal out there/worried about the outside cats
Well and they have shelters open for anyone who’s heat goes out and has no where to go. Or just homeless… I hope in Chicago. We don’t really have homeless people in the country but some always die when this happens… If they don’t get the notice of convinced to come in …
We downgraded from devastating impacts to damaging. Yay! Still expecting a half inch of freezing rain, poor trees, but better than the 3/4 inch they expected yesterday.
@sammydog01 - Freezing rain is the worst! Hoping you had no damage.
I scar d the hell out of myself when I had the choke on my snowblower open instead of closed when I was giving it a five minute warmup today. It usually starts on the first pull.
@Aetherwizard Yeah, my Toro snowblower has always started on the first or second pull even after sitting without being run even once between winters, but it does need to be primed and choked. After two pulls a few days ago and no start, and with 12 to 18 inches of snow predicted, it scared the hell out of me too. More pulls and nothing… until I did some “deferred maintenance” and now all is well for tomorrow and Monday.
Some rain here but not below freezing until 6am Sunday. What did my apartment building maintenance guy do? Spread 4 or 5 bags of salt on the parking lot prior to the rain starting. That was a waste. It all washed away. The idiot (and he is one) didn’t think that through.
@Kidsandliz I get the idea of pre-treating surfaces, though, but not when rain is predicted. Duh.
@ItalianScallion That guy is dumb as a post. I did move my car so that when people slid around the parking lot (because why would they expect a problem if there is ice everywhere - heck no - lets still go run around town, tailgate, speed…) at least I am not downhill to be slid into.
That there is funny, I don’t care who you are.
@Kidsandliz 100% uncontaminated by stuff that’s only present in the modern oceans, but pure salt isn’t pink, so it’s 100% contaminated with something. From what I’ve read, the non-salt bits are a bit variable, but so far nobody seems to have found any that’s actively bad for people.
Whelp, that’s a wrap for Tulsa, Oklahoma. Snow’s over folks.
National Weather Service reported about 7.2 inches of snow total last I heard. We were very oh so lucky to not get the ice that I know others are dealing with.
Still housebound because my Corolla probably couldn’t handle it. Main streets were plowed yesterday, but we got like 5 inches more overnight.
The new landscaping crew is here and doing sidewalks right now!
@shahnm
RIGHT!
🫠
Literally dodged the bullet. Nothing but snow and cold in Claremore OK, but we stocked up, and WFH, so no reason to leave until the (country) roads are cleared. Luck to you in the Southeast, esp around Charlotte.
@MercedesLackey
OMG! Stuck in a snow storm and someone was shooting at you?!?
@macromeh Probably not as good a joke as you thought it was. We were supposed to get an ice storm, and didn’t.
@MercedesLackey Just a mild grammar tease about use of literally when meaning figuratively.
@macromeh Well…if you count sleet as “bullets”, which I do, given the ice storm we had that took out our power for a MONTH awhile back…
@MercedesLackey
Holy crap! A month without power… that would make ME “gun shy” too. Glad you fared better this time
@chienfou In an all-electric house, no less. And no generator. Thank goodness the husband was able to get out just enough to get to the “pro-pane an’ pro-pane assessories” store about a mile from us and found a ventless propane heater. NOW we have portable generators, so I’m a little less “gun-shy.” A little.
Mostly nothing to see here in Houston, if you don’t live in a low-bidder-designed-and-built apartment complex managed by idiots. Those can get exciting in freezing temps.
Places where folks might postpone driving
@f00l
@therealjrn marked safe from driving anywhere
@f00l Bermuda
Yeah, this is a real winter storm up here around Boston with the most snow that we’ve had in a few years. At 8 pm I measured between 10 and 12 inches. The wind has picked up and the snow is supposed to be heavy overnight with another foot possible. Keeping my fingers crossed that my repaired snowblower will be ok tomorrow. Here are some photos looking out from my door.
@ItalianScallion I hope you have lots of fuzzy blankets!
Thanks, @Kyeh. I have this one that I got in an IRK. It’s so soft and warm!
@ItalianScallion I’m glad you do!
Update: the storm was over early this morning. I ended up with mostly 12 inches and 14 in a few places. I think it was more but then it compressed and got heavier. The snowblower was not cooperating today. Yes, it started and ran (just) ok after I fiddled with the choke, but all of a sudden the rotor stopped turning so it wouldn’t throw snow. Upon further examination, I found that the drive belt was shredded and jammed behind a pulley. I ordered two belts that should be here Friday or Saturday and the carb should be here tomorrow, so this coming weekend snowblower repair is on my schedule. But you know what? In of it all, I still love New England and can’t imagine living anywhere else… except maybe part time in Italy.
Oh, and no snow in the forecast that goes out to Sunday. 
*In spite of it all
@ItalianScallion
/giphy Bloom where you are planted
@chienfou You just reminded me that I want to get my Aerogarden going again, probably with basil (I love pesto) and parsley (so I don’t have to buy the usual big bunches and have most of it go bad).
@ItalianScallion
I was in our garden the other day and noticed that I still had a bunch of seed heads on the dead basil from last fall. Plucked a handful off and threw them in a container with some potting soil, got them wet, and covered them with a shower cap to make a mini greenhouse. Lo and behold I have a shit pot that’s sprouted. Score!
@chienfou @ItalianScallion That’s a brilliant idea - a shower cap!
@ItalianScallion @Kyeh
Yeah, they’re just a few cents a piece if you buy them from the Dollar tree or a beauty supply store. Tho now I see that I can get them for two cents a piece in packs of 500 from walmart. When I bought this last batch the alternative were still branded Glad and much more expensive.
@ItalianScallion I just saw that Cape Cod Bay is frozen into slushy waves!!!
@Kyeh I haven’t seen photos of that, but it doesn’t surprise me. We’ve had quite some frigid weather up here and likely many other bodies of water are like that too!
@ItalianScallion They’re calling them “slushy waves” and they’re all over Instagram right now. Brrrr!
@therealjrn check out Yellowknife, NT, Canada
@mycya4me
Okay When are you going to be ready?
https://www.yellowknife.ca/en/exploring-yellowknife/how-to-get-here.aspx
@mycya4me @therealjrn As of 11 am MST, it’s only -26F (-32C) in Yellowknife. The coldest spot in Canada in this hour is, according to Environment Canada (their NWS), Thomsen River, Northern Territories at -41F (-40.6C), which as you can see is where the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales cross.
@therealjrn That is one end of the ICE Roads going north to resupply Native communities & Diamonds & other mines. It was featured in the TV series Ice Road Truckers.
I don’t want to move to Canada due to the Cold weather. I do have a FB friend that lives in Winnipeg, MB.
@mycya4me @therealjrn
Used to live on the Canadian border at International falls Minnesota. I’m painfully aware of the crossover between Celsius and Fahrenheit at -40.
@chienfou @therealjrn I hope you moved south.
@mycya4me
Central AL now…
My daughter lives in Nashville. Evidently about 200k people are “powerless” there due to ice coating limbs which then broke, fell and took out power lines and poles. Her power went off overnight Saturday to Sunday. Thankfully they have a gas range so they’re able to cook still. Doesn’t bode well for the next few days though.
@chienfou If she can get to a propane store they might still have a ventless propane heater there. Safe to use indoors. Saved our bacon during that month-without-power in 2006.
@MercedesLackey
Thanks. I’ll let her know.
Hope everyone is surviving.
Esp those in TN without power.
It’s still quite cold in N TX at night.
@therealhrn
I dunno about you but … on the coldest days Sat-We’d my allergies didn’t cause many problems.
Now that it’s kinda warmer during the daytime I’m back on the antihistamines.
Ick.
/giphy sneeze!
@f00l Yes, I suppose, but maybe it’s just from staying inside…It’s very cold tonight.
¯\(ツ)/¯
@f00l
Yep. My daughter and her family in Nashville are entering day 6 with no power…
@chienfou
I hope in prep for next year they get one of those ventless propane heats for emergencies. And maybe a generator capable of powering the fridge/freezer.
She and her people have my total sympathy. I hope they are offered warmer place to sleep by friends so that they can take turns not being cold in the dark.
Or wise when a storm is forecast rent an RV park it in the drive and live in it for as long as needed.
It’s so awful being cold for days and days.
@f00l
They’re staying at a friend’s house in his basement Airbnb apartment. She sent me a list of probable recovery dates by zip code and hers looks like it could be as late as a week from now! That’s crazy
Well, we have another blast coming our way. Unseasonably low temps for the next weekend here in Central Alabama. Cold and breezy today with a HIGH just under freezing (current wind chill 16). Overnight low supposed to be around 15 to 17 actual temp (wind chill around 5 to 7°) . Normal temps are mid 50s during the day and slightly above freezing at night.
@chienfou Our weather got switched with yours! We have a week of 50/60s daytime temps and “slightly above freezing” nights!
@chienfou @Kyeh
The cold has moved east of Colorado. It’s still sitting in Yexas and points east.
I’m completely fed up with it. I get cranky after too many days of cold.
@chienfou @f00l And SOUTH! I heard there was a bit of snow around Tampa!?
@chienfou @f00l @Kyeh I have not heard about any snow in the Tampa area yet but the next couple days could possibly bring a few flakes. Not that we need anymore flakes around here.
@chienfou @f00l @yakkoTDI
Is it cold there?
@chienfou @f00l @Kyeh Currently 39 and should get down to 33 tonight. The next couple days should get down to about 30.
@chienfou @f00l @yakkoTDI Do you have heat in your place?
@chienfou @f00l @Kyeh Not that it is needed often but heat (and A/C) is mandatory. I have a good tolerance to cold but I hate cold feet.
@chienfou @Kyeh @yakkoTDI
Heat yeah. But I can still “feel the cold”.
Was below freezing all day and night. Night because freezing Sunday. On Monday it will supposedly warm up.
Which sux a bit.
Forecast low for Houston tonight is 27F according to the weather app I prefer (WTForecast). Forecast high today is 44F, but it might creep over that.
Amazon’s been coming since Tuesday. I’ve been driving since Wednesday. Where the hell is the USPS? They haven’t delivered mail in a week. I hope they’re saving it up and not dumping it in a snow bank.
@sammydog01
Picked up small stuff from Amz at whole foods yesterday.
The pickup and return line spiraled way out the door. Like 4-5x the usual length.
The ice finally mostly melted so people can escape.
@f00l Our schools are closed at least through tomorrow, so glad my kids are adults. I was following a mail truck yesterday (I guess some people are getting mail) and it spun out on a perfectly dry road by accelerating and turning a super sharp left. I’m not sure if he didn’t know how to drive or just wanted to call in and say the roads are unsafe. Or maybe it was the chains on the back tires, do they grip poorly on asphalt?
Meanwhile, it been 80+° here in SoCal and supposed to get even warmer midweek.
(The flip side, of course, is the cost of living …)
@narfcake and the fires…