I know some people experienced a horrible event this past week after the power went down and there are still some communities waiting for their lights to come back on, add to that most big communities Austin included, are in a water boil notice, but Saturday was just a beautiful day to get out of the house. I was hesitant to go and explore because my thought was that people are going to be in panic mode and with very little patience as they try to get into empty grocery stores and trying to get the few resources out there, but that wasn't what we experienced.
I decided once we left the house that I wanted to go to Cabela's, if anything, to see how much camping/survival gear costs. Before we got there, Wife demanded we go eat first. I always hate to eat before shopping, I fear the urge to poop, but I had just gone and showered so I figured things would be okay. We tried Cracker Barrel because the parking lot was only about a third full, but they were only doing take-out. It was the same at Zaxby's and a couple other places. We finally saw that Dan's Burgers had people inside and so we decided on burgers for lunch. The meal was really good, they make a decent fat juicy burger, I just hate the cost. It was Wife, Baby A, and myself and the cost for 3 burgers, fries and drinks was over $39, Wife did also get a milkshake.
The restaurant was busy and the cashier said we had just missed the lunch rush, so it had been busier. I really do like that all these businesses are having success, I would hate to see so much variety in our eating options have to close due to Covid-19. People seemed to be behaving themselves in that area, at least. Nobody seemed frustrated and driving aggressively, everyone seemed to be courteous and driving like humans.
I liked that Wife didn't whine about hating Cabela's like usual, she seemed interested and like she bought into my line of thinking. We went upstairs to the camping section and looked at different lanterns. I was thinking of those that run on the green propane cylinders, but they only had a real fancy type that was like $170. These lanterns are supposed to be cheap, I had seen them for like $40 in the past. We settled on a couple of lanterns that run on D cell batteries. We also saw that they had some Lifestraws, which is like a fat straw that filters water, and the idea is that one can suck directly from a stream or river and not worry about bacteria and contaminants. We got a set of four, but will eventually get a couple of extras since we always have a few more people in the house than us. I was hoping to find some cooking sources that run on gas and can be used indoors as I saw online, but none of the packaging said safe for indoor use. One could say we are overreacting after the fact, but I don't want to be caught in these scenario again. It is basically embarrassing for the rest of the world to look at us Texans as weak and ill prepared. I know that at least for myself, we will have a generator, various heating sources, Wife recommended a small A/C to cool one room in case we loose power in the middle of summer. This would save us from having to worry about getting a huge $15,000 generator to operate the whole house. A decent one to keep the freezer going and a small A/C would be enough and that would be less than $1000. I saw that Cabela's sells dried food boxes and packets. I want to consider some of these, but I want to read up more on them. Boy suggested going to an army surplus store and buying MRE's but I remember when Wife's dad got us some and they were edible but kind of gross. The Cabela's options were not cheap. A month supply stored in buckets, sells for $479. Again, it is a good idea, but I am not sure this is the cheapest place to buy stuff like this and I don't know if they are price gouging us right now.
Still, we are very fortunate that we did not suffer the cold or water damage from broken pipes. It was a little nerve wracking and I know I will pay a pretty penny for the electricity to keep us warm and the water bill will be crazy high, keeping all the faucets running both hot and cold to save from busted lines. Still, we will pay the cost and move on with our lives. I feel for the many who lost all their belongings in houses that flooded, some people died in the cold freezing, to add insult to injury, a lot of people crashed and damaged their vehicles venturing out whether through stupidity or to try and find shelter after their power failed. For some, this nightmare of a situation will continue for months.
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