Oh man, I was feeling pretty good this morning. We woke to pipes that were not frozen over in the kitchen and bath, the house at 71 degrees, then I looked at my phone. My neighbor had texted that one of my A/C units outside was wobbling around like an unbalanced washing machine and sounded like it was going to fall over. That is not something I like to hear, but I braced for the cold, went to pee, turned off both units upstairs and down, then headed out. I figured there would be a little frozen ice and snow on top of the units, I didn't think it would be as thick as it was. I had Boy's heat gun, which has been helpful lately and started melting the ice. It didn't look like anything was broken, but it was about a third of the way up filled with snow inside and the ice was almost an inch thick in parts. The vent on top had the ice so thick, it was almost sealed shut, I don't know how it worked the last 3 days continuously to keep us warm. I called DD to come out, he likes being a hero and he quickly went and got a little torch from his truck. He did much better and faster melting with his gun, and within five minutes or so, we had all the ice on top removed. We then reached in with a plastic pick and broke the ice from the blades which were probably making the unit run unbalanced. I then tried running them and they were back to running quietly and normally. I thanked my neighbor and put that chapter behind me.
Wife woke at this point and came down, 10:30am is a little early for her on a day off, but she offered to make breakfast, so all was good. I had just talked to my mom and they have now been without power for over 36 hours, at least. I tried joking that we were sitting here in 72 degree weather debating whether to eat some steaks or burgers later tonight as Wife was heating up homemade beans with some sausage and eggs. I feel bad for them, but I can't do much over here. She was talking about their RV which is parked in their backyard and she at least got the stove going to heat up some coffee and what they could find to make for food. I went on about how lucky we have been to not have lost power this whole time while many people we know are sitting without power all over the state. We then hung up and I finished eating my tacos while looking around Youtube for interesting articles and then it happened.
It is a helpless feeling that even with all preparations, it still feels like you are on your own. Our power went out. The lights flickered and died, then everything was silent, the hum of the fridge, the hiss of the heater pointed into the cabinet under the sink. Only my laptop stayed lit because of the battery. I put it in sleep mode just as the internet died and the web page went white. Wife started gathering all the candles we have, I started yelling at the boys to not be dumb and open doors or run the hot water. Wife insisted on washing the few dishes remaining, I told her to just hurry, at which she made me do it. After this there is nothing to do but go lay down under the blankets and hope this doesn't last all night. I took out the steaks we had to defrost and make tonight, figuring better to grill them with the charcoal we have on the older grill than have them spoil. Thirty minutes later, as Tiktok had stopped updating on my phone, I guess 5G failed as well, I was dozing off, then the power came back on.
We were without power for 50 minutes, I feel so bad for those who have been without power for days. I told my family that this is just a lesson for us to be better prepared for the next emergency. We should all own a decent working generator, wood and or charcoal in a dry place for emergencies, maybe even some of that food doomsday preppers are always advertising, a well stocked freezer (the generator can keep it running) and alternate heating sources that can be used indoors. This is a hard lesson but it does teach us what happens when we rely on our government to take care of us. They will always factor in a cost savings some of us don't care about. It is a great initiative to be green and save the planet for future generations, but if it will potentially harm us in the process, I say fuck all that noise and let's get a nice oil fire going. We, specially here in Texas with all the oil and natural gas underneath us shouldn't be thinking about going into survival mode when it gets cold for one lousy week.
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