We Texans are not used to extremely cold weather and snow, but we had a good taste of it this past week. We thought the thermometer on the deck was stuck at 20 for 3 days after an arctic front blew in on Tuesday. We had guests from Wisconsin staying at the studio, and I believe they felt right at home! They really enjoyed the fireplace.
Wednesday we had about 1" of snow and it was beautiful. The snow was very dry and powdery. The three granddaughters got a snow day from school and enjoyed playing in the snow. They tried building a snowman and all they got for their efforts were cold hands! They did make snowballs and had snowball fights.
The plumbing in my Mom's house is in the attic very close to the eaves. We had left cold water dripping in the bathroom and when we checked Wednesday morning, the hot water was frozen at the sink and the shower in that bathroom. Dan spent 2 hours in the attic with a hair dryer. Some of the time was spent in the pitch black waiting on the electricity to come back on - we were experiencing rolling blackouts Ercot was doing across the state in order to keep the power on to Texas. The longest Dan spent in the dark was 15 minutes. He finally got the frozen slush in the pipes melted and we dripped BOTH faucets after that - actually more than a drip, a light flow.
Wednesday night our son called and his cold water was frozen in the kitchen sink. It sounded as if he needed a little moral support, so Dan and I went down to assist. I began using a hair dryer under the sink, but the cabinet back was solid and I didn't get any water flow. Dan and David were under the house for about 1 1/2 hours and had heated all of the pipes in the kitchen area. We finally figured it must be frozen in the wall behind the cabinet.
David used a sharp knife and cut a piece out of the cabinet, then through the Sheetrock and it didn't take but a couple of minutes to get the slush defrosted in the line so water began flowing - hooray for hair dryers!
A friend wasn't so lucky. He called his wife in a panic - water was running through the ceiling onto their brand new mattress. She called some friends from church to help him bale water and do some preliminary clean up until the insurance company could get someone to help. They had to carry the mattress outside and by the next morning, it was a huge ice block!
David is a Georgetown PD motorcycle officer. The first day, he rode the motorcycle in to work - just so he could say he'd done it. His legs, hands and feet were frozen by the time he got there and got into a car! The rest of the cold days he took the truck in then got a patrol car. I think they all stayed inside the PD except when working accidents, which there were a lot of once the snow got packed and became ice. He called us and told us to stay home, which we gladly did.
We spent about 3 days camped in front of the fireplace enjoying it.
Dallas was virtually shut down for 3 or 4 days. I really felt sorry for merchants and businesses and sports fans attempting to get into Dallas and enjoy the pre-Superbowl festivities! Thankfully Sunday was much better and the game could go on - and what a game! Of course, most of the fans were from climates that have very similar weather all of the time and they can deal with it and drive in it - they just had to worry about crazy Texans that did NOT know how to drive in it!
