Wherein I made myself laugh

Whew! This has been a W E E K!

Knowing I wanted to write this morning I often think of a post title as I start writing. This morning I’m thinking “Waiting” and saw I used it for my previous post, so, no. I did laugh. Because why not.

Like any natural disaster this is going to take some time to recover. Over the week I was watching and participating in the fb group for our local community. I also heard from a few quilting friends in other parts of the state who’ve had burst pipes, and other damage to their property. One friend can get a plumber on Friday of this week; another is scheduled to take longer but hopefully sooner! I read this article from the Bulwark on Galveston and my heart sank.

I mentioned in the previous post that I’ve lived through other natural disasters including Hurricane Sandy which devastated part of Long Island NY, causing other areas in NJ and NY to lose power. We chose to stay home for many reasons and my husband got me to the airport just in time to leave for my first ever teaching gig in Houston. Another time my Sweetie and I were camping in the Southern Tier of New York when a severe thunder storm rolled through causing flooding in Binghamton and the surrounding area, it was in late 2019 or early 2020 that some of the roadwork repairs finally finished. Back in 2003 that effected numerous states in the central and eastern part of the country, extending into Canada. My biggest concern in that moment was for my mother-in-love who because of her health at the time was in need of oxygen and had a hard time breathing in the hot humid weather. I was seriously plotting how to get her to a nearby shopping plaza to cool off.

We lost power again twice the other night for four+ hours then at least for a couple of hours because someone opened a switch that caused damage in several substations. I did something unusual that evening I tweeted to our Governor, ERCOT and LCRA about this power situation, I got no answer from any of them, nor do I expect one. I am certain they were inundated with people contacting them to get this resolved as quickly as possible. While still cold the temps were not near zero. Our local elected leaders responded to local needs as they could with the resources at hand. Neighbors helped neighbors, sharing resources from water & power to blankets, getting plumbing repaired quickly and taking down tree limbs.

There’s a time to be prudent and do our best to prepare.

Texas I get we’re independent and I support this. I don’t mind not being connected to the national grid, as long as we’re taking care of our own infrastructure to do our best to prepare for situations such as this. From both the story in the Bulwark, and other information this need to prepare our infrastructure was well known. What I don’t know is why this work wasn’t done, other than the fact that it costs money to do so. What I do know is that in some way through higher insurance rates, energy bills, and/or taxes we the Citizens of this state will pay for the clean up of this mess. What I’d, what we’d seriously like to see is the power grid prepared for another winter event. Here’s the thing though people with the highest salaries in these organizations should willingly and publicly take pay cuts across the board to begin paying for this, not only as a gesture of good faith, but showing the leadership that represents who we are as Texans. #texasstrong

Here in Georgetown we are, rightfully, conserving water & power to help ease the draw on the grid so as repairs are being made other communities can be brought back on line. This is necessary and quite frankly an act of charity and a part of being a member of the community. There are other communities in our State that are in great need, including Houston & Galveston.

One of our trees lost a limb, a big one. Some of the smaller trees shed a few branches. Now that there’s no ice on the steps to the attic I need to go up there. Our heating system is off by choice rather than because the power is out. I’m going to wait another day to put the sewing/office space back together, in part because I’m going to make sure there are no leaks from the roof on the second floor of our home where all of this is located.

Quilting

In quilting news I’ve been giving consideration to on-line classes and after a conversation on Friday I know where I want to go with this. I have the equipment and am a novice video editor with great resources for help. Now I need to get stuck into the work of submitting, recording, editing and promoting. This is where the real work happens. I’ll share more of the direction where I’m headed in a week or two after I get some pieces in place.

Please remember that Batt Scooters are available on the shop page.

Happy Quilting,

Teri