Ice

You know those people on TV who tell ( in the most southern of accents--often referred to as "yahoos") you about the "baseball-sized hail", or the "raging creek", or the "good-golly, what a fire"? Well, two of them live at my house. DH and Rowdy Son just tramped in for--not the first time today--proudly holding up sheets of ice. "Look", they proclaimed..."This was from the car's roof". Yeah, yeah...I see. I told them to add it to the freezer. It is now full of long icicles, sheet ice from hubby's car's roof, a "mold" of my car's bumper, and ice that was perfectly formed around a rock. And yes, we kept them all. What is WRONG with us?

They measured the last two slabs. 3/4" thick. In South Texas?

Freezers are not supposed to be full of ice plucked from the eaves. Who does that? Oh yeah, people who never, ever see ice or snow. People whose kids spent the entire day yesterday "sledding" in their pasture sitting on the lid of their turtle sandbox. People who took picture after picture of the ice and snow because "no one is going to believe this". That's us. Perfect daughter called to tell us that our small town "made the weather channel". It's all so cool. Literally.

The thing is, I'm sort of missing ice cream in my freezer. And milk in the fridge, bread on the counter and mostly...chocolate in my secret hiding place. We are running low on supplies. DH was thinking about trying to "get out" today. I told him it really wasn't worth the risk to life and limb, "unless you get me a GOOD supply of chocolate". I guess watching our neighbor skid around cured him of that roaming desire and meant I have yet another day of trying to believe that pound cake is as good as brownies.

Speaking of Perfect Daughter...the reason she called to tell us about our national exposure is that SHE is stuck in a motel room about seven hours northeast of here, watching a LOT of TV. She was visiting her perfect boyfriend in North Carolina last week, and enjoying balmy weather when we first started getting freezing rain. By the time she was heading west, she met it about half-way. We hope she can get home tomorrow. She was gripey (possibly justified) until we pointed out that there are people stuck in places like Ozona's Convention Center with only the Ozona Jail blankets to keep them warm, and she should enjoy that lovely Holiday Inn Express. (Who knew Ozona had a Convention Center?). I-10 is closed for 300 miles, so people are more stuck than she is. There are places in West Texas that you just don't want to spend three unplanned days. It's not exactly New York City. Heck, I don't want to spend three unplanned days at my OWN house. There are five people and three dogs here, INSIDE 24/7..."nuff said.

So, we tried to be busy today. It felt a bit like Little House on the Prairie as "Pa" broke the ice on the pool early this morning, then busied himself clearing a patch of grass under the sheet of ice for the sweet chihuahua to avail herself of. (Chihauhuas do NOT like getting their tiny toes wet or cold. It's been a "thing" since the precip started). Mr. herewergoagain just interrupted my typing to tell me that he didn't think the Ingalls family had a pool. Well, Pa DID have to crack ice on the water bucket. Whatever. He also didn't have the high power lines dropping 10 foot sections of ice on his property. That noise is not unlike gunshot and it gets a bit unnerving as it cracks, drops, crashes and then "twangs". Only out here--you city folk have no idea what really goes on to get that electricity to your houses. We have to dodge ice missiles.

Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 40. DH will have to get back to "real" work, I'll have to actually get into my car. (I wouldn't let the guys near it tonight with their ice-scrapers and carefully used screwdrivers...screwdrivers? And actually...we couldn't find an ice-scraper for sale here so, yeah it was a putty knife. I just told them to "step away from my car"). I'll turn on the heater and let the sun thaw it. It's been fun...for a day, tiresome after two days and "better end" by tomorrow. I do think my northern friends are a) crazy, and b) admirable. It's just too much WORK to deal with this weather. Texas needs to be Texas again.