Finally Able To Drive And Forage For Food In Texas With Broken Pipe Disasters, White Zinfandel & Snowman Sculpturing

Just when I was about to run out of food, the sun appeared and did some snow and ice melting. By 2 in the afternoon I was able to easily navigate roads without sliding.

Miss Puerto Rico, she being from an island without snow, does not like driving on the white, slippery stuff. She was desperately in need of something called White Zinfandel.

So, I told Miss Puerto Rico if I made it out of here I would get her some of that White Zinfandel stuff she needed.

That is my hand on the wheel, heading east on John T. White Road to my local neighborhood Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Ironically, the week began with me driving to that same Wal-Mart, last Monday, to see the store thronged with panicked people stocking up on supplies. Had I known it would be clear til Friday that I could make it back to Wal-Mart I would have been one of the panicked people stocking up on supplies on Monday.

Today I learned, via his blog, that Gar the Texan, has been snowbound all week in Flower Mound. He too did not stock up on supplies and was running low on vittles by today. I don't know if he made it out today. He lives very close to the Flower Mound Sprouts Farmers Market.

When I got back from Wal-Mart, I delivered to Miss Puerto Rico's abode her White Zinfandel. I then took a picture of the melting snowy view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. Then I headed back to Miss Puerto Rico's office to tell her the delivery had been made.

I was in Miss Puerto Rico's office when a lady ran in, crying, sobbing that water was flooding into her apartment. There were several people in the office. I asked Miss PR if there was anything I could do.

She asked if I'd go check and see how bad the flood was.

And so I did. It was real bad. Several inches of water all over with a waterfall of water running down the bedroom wall with the ceiling collapsed. I ran back to Miss Puerto Rico to tell her it was real bad, as in a disaster.

Soon I found myself helping move stuff to a display apartment. After awhile I felt I was of no more use, so I walked back to the office zone and saw a guy looking perplexed. I asked if he needed help. He told me he'd been trying to call the Emergency Number, to no avail.

He told me that the laundry was flooding and the ceiling collapsed. I went to tell Miss PR. We then drove to check that out. I'd never seen anything like it. A flood of water running out of the laundry room, with chunks of ceiling falling.

Then we opened the door to the boiler room to see about a foot of water rushing like a river. With chunks of the ceiling falling. Miss PR turned off the hot water somehow, but that only stopped part of the flood.

Then several phone calls took place to plumbers.

Soon after that a call about another break.

And now the water has been cut off at the main, with about a 3 block area without water. Including me.

Miss Puerto Rico says this is the worst disaster in all the time she has been in Texas managing these type disasters.

On a happy note, in the middle of all this I saw a guy making a snowman. Using a novel method. He was filling a bucket with snow, packing it down, and then building the snowman from the resulting pile of cylinders, which he then sculpted.

I stopped and complimented the guy on his impressive snowman engineering technique. He told me he'd never made a snowman before and wanted to make one with his son. Because, he said, who knows when we'll see snow in Texas again.

Well, according to the current forecast, I believe we are scheduled for more possible snow next week.

More Snow On Day 4 Of Being Snowbound In Texas

Around 11 the snow stopped falling. While it was falling I was out in it. That is one of my motorized vehicular devices you see covered with a thick white substance.

The white substance was very powdery, so I easily removed it.

Walking in the 6 inches of snow was a lot easier than dealing with walking on ice. But, I had an incident or two where I nearly slipped into falling mode.

I took several pictures to take you on a virtual tour of my latest Texas Snow Day.

Looking out at the pool it is hard to believe I used to swim in that thing. It looks very cold currently.

The icicle I showed you yesterday now is surrounded by a ring of snow.

Above I'm up by Albertsons, looking down on Boca Raton Boulevard. The van on the right is stuck.

To the left of the view of the stuck van is a couple rows of parked, snow-covered cars. I don't know if they are stuck.

That is the Super Bowl Buffet on the right, with a truck and a car going slow on the Loop 820 Interstate. It does not appear that the Super Bowl Buffet is open today.

On the south side of the Super Bowl Buffet looking across the parking lot at Albertsons, which is open.

Currently it is 22 degrees out there. I think that's the warmest it has been for days. The sun seems to be trying to break through the clouds. Some sun might help warm things up a bit. And cause melting, which will then freeze again into a slippery, icy mess.

It is days like this that cause me to miss the temperature, moderate, easy going weather of Western Washington.

I called my mom this morning while I was out playing in the snow. Mom politely listened to me whine about the weather and then told me it was me who chose to move to this place. Phoenix froze last night, down to 26, according to my mom.

Miss Puerto Rico just called to tell me she is out of essential groceries. I told her I'd go on an emergency essentials hunt at Albertsons this afternoon.

Weather Alert With Snow Falling Again In North Texas 2 Days Before The Super Snow Bowl

I was hoping today, the 4th day of the 2nd month of 2011 would bring some relief from the ice and snow and cold.

Maybe as this Friday progresses we will get above freezing. But right now, coming up on 8 in the morning, it is 19 degrees with some form of frozen precipitation falling.

The frozen precipitation is being like icy droplets of fog. Not snow. But, snow did fall overnight, coating every surface once more in white.

Early this morning the National Weather Service had this to say...

"A localized band of heavy snow has developed over the eastern parts of the DFW metroplex with snowfall totals reaching 4-5 inches over Dallas. Snowfall through the next few hours is expected to be light to occasionally moderate, but additional totals of 1 to 2 inches are possible."

Below are some blurbs from the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram about our latest day of  freezing in North Texas...

Great. According to the above forecast by 6pm today we  are still well below freezing. Which I guess means the roads will remain nothing I want to be out driving on. I should have stocked up on more food when I saw so many people doing so on Monday when I was in Wal-Mart. Apparently the longtime locals knew more than I did.

I wonder how many decades it will be before the NFL decides to play another Super Bowl in Arlington? I suspect that may never happen until all sorts of new facilities are built around Cowboys Stadium so that all the Super Bowl activity can take place in one location, rather than spread out over a very large area.

ESPN probably will never return to downtown Fort Worth. Such a sad turn of events. Large crowds were expected, instead the opposite has happened, with that reality captured by a picture and a sentence in this morning's Star-Telegram, with the caption under the picture of a single person standing on an empty parking saying, "A lone fan wandered through the winter wonderland that was Sundance Square as snow fell early Friday."

Still Icebound In Texas & Now Thinking Of Going Swimming With The Icicles

A long long time ago I used to be able to go swimming in what is now my ice pond. The fountain that spouts water into the pool has caused really big icicles to form.

I am really hoping that the icicles begin to melt tomorrow.

Right now it is the hottest it has been here in days. 19 degrees.

Snow is predicted to be possible from now until tomorrow.

Up in my old hometown in Washington, right now, it is 48 degrees. The Scrabble Queen of Washington is escaping those frigid Washington temperatures tomorrow by going to Hawaii.

Meanwhile down in Port Aransas, on the semi-tropical Texas Gulf Coast, Alma has had to give up her regular flip flops and put on real shoes due to it being 40 degrees in Port Aransas. Houston is scheduled to possibly get some snow. I have not heard if the snow is predicted to make it all the way to Alma.

Back here in the D/FW Metroplex the usually hot Elsie Hotpepper turns into Elsie Coolbean in this icy misery.  I've heard from Elsie erratically ever since we went into the DEEP FREEZE. Usually I have heard from Elsie Hotpepper several times by this time in the day. I hope she did not try and do some saloon hopping in these dire conditions and suffer some icy woe.

Al Gore has been in the news explaining how the worst winter weather in decades is just one more sign of Global Warming. I think I actually voted for him.

Rush Limbaugh Weighs In On The Texas Super Bowl Week Ice Storm, Rolling Blackouts & Getting Power From Mexico

I listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few minutes every once in awhile while I do yoga. Getting aggravated listening to someone be aggravating is entertaining at times. And might be salubrious for ones blood pressure.

Somehow I often manage to be listening to Rush Limbaugh during one of his episodes when he says something that catches flak. And due to having heard what he actually said I find myself on Limbaugh's side, as I hear how badly out of whack the flak is from what he actually said.

Anyway, I just heard Rush do a little rant about our current frozen situation in Texas. According to Limbaugh, Mexico is helping Texas out of its power problem by sending electricity to Texas.

I did not know the Texas grid is connected to Mexico.

Rush also mentioned the havoc the Ice Storm and freezing temperatures have wreaked on Super Bowl week, mentioning, in particular, the pathetic ESPN scene in downtown Fort Worth where broadcasters broadcast to an empty Sundance Square parking lot while enveloped in the vapor caused by their hot air meeting the frozen air.

Limbaugh also said that nothing like getting power from Mexico ever happened back when J.R. Ewing was running Dallas.

Typing this is not as amusing as it was hearing it.

I've still got him on and he's now taking a phone call from someone in Dallas who is telling Rush how bad the ice situation is here, with freezing pipes breaking, closing down power plants. The caller is now telling Rush that Texas drivers don't know how to drive on ice.

Rush is now defending the Texas drivers, saying no one can drive on solid ice.

Next caller is complaining about the Rolling Blackouts being due to no new power plants having been built in Texas in years.

Rush is continuing to speak well of Texas, most prosperous state in the Union, having to get power from Mexico. And how this must be embarrassing to a lot of Texans.

I'm a transplant. I'm not finding it all that embarrassing to get some electricity from Mexico.

Okay, I've reached my Rush Limbaugh limit for the day.

According To Dolores The Super Bowl Will Be Played In Cowboys Stadium In Arlington

The weather info and countdown to the Super Bowl is a screencap from this morning's Dallas Morning News.

Note that the countdown is titled Super Bowl XLV - Arlington, TX.

Meanwhile, over in Fort Worth, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, there was an amusing letter to the editor this morning, written by a resident of Arlington who feels Arlington's honor is somehow being besmirched by the media and Jerry Jones.

Below is that letter, complete with the Star-Telegram's title for the letter...

Arlington's honor

Why is it so difficult for the media as well as Jerry Jones to acknowledge the fact that Cowboys Stadium is indeed in Arlington, where, I might add, the Super Bowl will be played? We, as residents of Arlington, voted to raise our sales tax to help pay for the stadium. Give us the courtesy of recognizing the city as the host of the Super Bowl. Our mayor, Dr. Robert Cluck, worked very hard to secure the honor of the stadium being built in Arlington. Please, give credit where credit is due.

-- Dolores Bielby, Arlington

I Am Still Freezing In Texas With No Rolling Blackout So Far Today

It was nice to wake up this morning to not find that another Rolling Blackout had rolled in.

It is still well below freezing on this dawn of the third day of the second month of 2011.

I read this morning that the Rolling Blackouts were caused by the freezing temperatures knocking out some key pieces of equipment at many of the Texas generating facilities.

I was hoping to drive up to Hurst today.

To see if this was possible I went on a test drive yesterday around 5.

I failed the test drive, so I won't be going up to Hurst today.

I had visually checked the road in my immediate vicinity and it seemed fairly clear of ice. I was not too long on the road when I discovered the clear road, in my immediate vicinity, was an anomaly. I was not long into driving north on Bridgewood Street, heading to Randol Mill, when the road became ice covered. Bridgewood, on its way to Randol Mill, goes down what amounts to being a steep hill in these parts.

I crawled down the steep hill at a speed my speedometer was not able to register. Eventually, before it got dark, I made it back here.

I am really really ready for the Texas Temperature Pendulum to swing back into the 70s or 80s. And stay there.

I Slipped & Slided My Way To The Super Bowl Buffet & Found It Closed

That almost looks like a mountain range in the background rising above my neighborhood Super Bowl Buffet.

But, there are no mountain ranges within 100s of miles of the location of my neighborhood Super Bowl Buffet.

In the picture, I am standing in front of Albertsons, looking northeast, across an iced over parking lot, with trucks sliding around helter skelter.

It appeared that the Super Bowl Buffet is not open today. No big surprise, all things considered. But it is sort of ironic that the Super Bowl Buffet is closed on Super Bowl week, with the Super Bowl being played just a few miles to the east in Arlington's Jerry Jones Palace, also known as the Temple of Greed and sometimes referred to as the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

I wish the Super Bowl Buffet was open today. Now that I've established that I can bi-pedal my way to it, via simulated cross country skiing, I'm in the mood for some good Chinese food.

I probably have ingredients in my refrigerator with which I could simulate a good imitation of Chinese food. But it would not be all that good. And it sure would be no buffet. With shrimp. Come to think of it, I do have shrimp in the freezer.

I've got a few hours of power before the next Rolling Blackouts roll in. I am prepared for it now. Sort of.

Day Two Way Below Freezing In Texas Waiting For The Next Rolling Power Blackout To Arrive

Looking out my viewing portal at a little bit before 11 on the second day of the second month of 2011 you can see I have some icicles forming on the window.

I keep hearing the screeching of tires spinning on ice.

I do not handle being immobile very well.

When the power was out this morning I went out in the 9 degree heat for awhile to see if I could see how widespread the outage was. Or if it was being worked on.

This was before I learned we were having an Electrical Emergency in Texas requiring rolling blackouts. My blackout rolled way longer than the 15 minutes the power people claimed the blackouts would roll.

The State of Texas is cut off from the electric grid the rest of the country is connected to. Except for, I believe, the El Paso zone. I have no idea how this works in Texarkana which spans the border of both Texas and Arkansas.

I've not yet heard what is causing the power shortage, besides the West Texas windmills not spinning. It would seem the power use during this cold snap would not be as bad as when it is 111 and ACs are running hard.

I think I'll bundle up and go watch some tires spin.

Texas Power Emergency Knocks Out My Electricity This Morning In Rolling Blackout

Around 6 this morning I sensed something was not right. A few minutes later I saw a light blinking on my computer that usually is not blinking.

A few seconds after that I realized the power was out.

Having no power, in the dark, when it is 11 degrees out makes for an interesting morning.

I figured the power would quickly come back on.

After an hour and a half of getting ever more cold I called ONCOR.

Busy signal.

That was encouraging. A busy signal indicated to me that this must be a REAL big problem.

When the sun finally arrived to provide me some illumination I found my propane camp stove, a teapot and some green tea.

I was suffering though a cup of green tea when the power came back on. I am now suffering through a cup of hot coffee.

After I was finally able to re-connect with the outside world I looked at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and learned that the entire state of Texas is having a power emergency. With rolling blackouts, or "Planned power outage" as the Star-Telegram put it in the screen cap below.

Apparently the cold and the lack of wind has brought wind power generation to a halt in West Texas.

An ONCOR spokesperson told KXAS Channel 5 that the emergency measures were instituted shortly before 6 am in North Texas.

Great. My neighborhood got blacked out in the first wave.

The spokeswoman also said ONCOR was selecting feeders to go out for 15 minutes at a time.

I don't know what a feeder is, but, what ever feeds me electricity went out for over an hour and a half.

I am really ready for an end of the Global Warming problem.