One for the Record Book

For the first time ever, the entire state of Texas was under a winter storm warning Sunday night.  In addition, we had a wind chill warning, another first time event for our immediate area.  Depending on which report you choose to believe, it was either 5, 8 or 9 degrees when we woke up Monday.  Tuesday wasn’t any better. 

So far, we have been among the fortunate few who have mostly had power.  Close neighbors have had almost none since Sunday night.  Today it is in the 30s, so some melting should happen, but more winter precipitation is expected early tomorrow.   

Our community is pretty much shut down and the state’s power grid has been seriously threatened.  I confess, we Texans don’t know how to deal with this, but experience is a great teacher. 

When I opened the Washington Post web site this morning, I saw these headlines.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blames wind turbines, Green New Deal policies for outages. Critics call that ‘a lie.' -- By Katie Shepherd

Volunteers race to save thousands of cold-stunned turtles washing up in Texas -- By Teo Armus

Texas mayor tells residents to fend for themselves during power outage: ‘Only the strong will survive’ – (NOT our mayor! I understand this person has since resigned.)

The Texas grid got crushed because its operators didn’t see the need to prepare for cold weather -- (The back story is our wind turbines froze during the ice storm and solar panels were blanketed by snow rendering them ineffective.)

And in quilting news…

Unit 5 of Esther’s Bloomers is complete. Unit 6 has a lot of applique including 180 leaves. It also requires more than 230 1 ½ inch squares. So, there is a lot of work left to keep me busy while we thaw.

Live -- My 2021 Word

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.  Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -- Thomas A. Edison