working out for Disney

[Sans Souci]

Ugh, lost power around 8:30pm last night. So, you can now count us among the millions who are out.

I'm sorry that you guys got taken offline. I hope you guys get it back ASAP and are keeping warm in the meantime.

 

[Figgy1]

Ugh, lost power around 8:30pm last night. So, you can now count us among the millions who are out.

I hope your power is back on by now. Stay safe and as warm as you can.

 

[Figgy1]

Morning 2 waking up without pain is wonderful I spent some quality albeit short time with Leslie and finally got on the rebounder just getting used to it but............. Easing back in

 

[MinnieM123]

Ugh, lost power around 8:30pm last night. So, you can now count us among the millions who are out.

Is your power back on yet? I'm hoping so, for you and your family. (If it's extended for another day, would you consider driving a distance to a motel for example, just to get everyone a warm night's sleep?)

 

[Figgy1]

Is your power back on yet? I'm hoping so, for you and your family. (If it's extended for another day, would you consider driving a distance to a motel for example, just to get everyone a warm night's sleep?)

@HouCuseChickie if you wind up having to go to a hotel make sure to save all receipts including gas and food you may be eligible for funds from FEMA Also if you have to leave home turn off all the water coming into your house and run all the faucets and flush the toilet so there's no water in the pipes to freeze edit If you have glow sticks the make great night lights.

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning.

Checking in with an hour workout. It was sweaty and it kind of felt like it was never going to end. It was very repetitive.

I've got sourdough proofing today. I'll be able to bake it tomorrow AM. I started the whole process yesterday. I'm kind of sick of sourdough right now, but I've nothing better to do. It takes a while to make, so it keeps me occupied. My husband and son like it, though. Maybe next week I will bake baguettes to switch it up a bit.

Other than that, I'm just hanging out, watching the snow come down, cleaning the house, etc...

Take care and stay warm.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I'm sorry that you guys got taken offline. I hope you guys get it back ASAP and are keeping warm in the meantime.

I hope your power is back on by now. Stay safe and as warm as you can.

Is your power back on yet? I'm hoping so, for you and your family. (If it's extended for another day, would you consider driving a distance to a motel for example, just to get everyone a warm night's sleep?)

@HouCuseChickie if you wind up having to go to a hotel make sure to save all receipts including gas and food you may be eligible for funds from FEMA Also if you have to leave home turn off all the water coming into your house and run all the faucets and flush the toilet so there's no water in the pipes to freeze edit If you have glow sticks the make great night lights.

Thanks everyone! Power came back on later in the evening last night and so far, it's remained on. We're expected to be in the low 20s the next couple of nights, so we hope it remains on. Northern friends from high school and college used to laugh when they saw me getting nervous about winter weather down here, but this situation has made it clear that our buildings and infrastructure were never designed for real winter...because it's not normal for us to see much in the way of real winter. Yes, there are all kinds of things that are going to come up about our deregulation and grid, but it doesn't change that our homes are designed more for 110 degrees vs. 10. Obviously, we also can't change the construction style down here and will need to continue to protect the house. Some may be the age of our home that helped (we've noticed older homes here tend to have more precautions taken in the building approach) and some may be the measures we took...and a lot may be luck!

As for hotels, we would have had to drive pretty far to find one that had rooms and heat. Most of the local ones were booked solid and people found out the hard way that the hotels weren't permitted to be providing heat/power to guest rooms...just halls and common areas. We probably would have had to try to get into Louisiana. Roads have also been really bad since this part of the country doesn't have plows and only minimal access to deicing equipment.

I think we're going to start pricing a Generac. With our hurricane risk, it seems like it would be a good investment.

 

[Songbird76]

We got home just after midnight on Friday. So, we were home in time for all of this winter weather. Thankfully, it gave us some time to prep the house and buy groceries/supplies. We drove back through some really nasty weather, but it wasn't this round of crud. We are extremely lucky to still have power and water. Nearly everyone we know is without at least one, if not both. Many go back and forth with losing and gaining power too. A number of people I know lost power around 8pm on Sunday and are still without. We may actually get above freezing for an hour or two today if my weather app is right, but we have another winter system coming in Wednesday/Thursday. It'll be 70 by Sunday.

We could still be pulled off the grid to help conserve, so we're still a bit nervous. Thankfully, we have a lot of winter gear...between winter camping stuff, ski stuff, cold weather race stuff, things I've retained from all of my years in NJ and NY, and my obsession with winter boots...and I think we should be good. Still, I would prefer to keep power and water. At least I can justify owning these with weather like this.

How is it now? They showed pictures on the news and said a bunch of people were without power and water. I immediately said to my husband, "Oh no!! One of the gals on the Disney board JUST got back from Disney and lives in Houston! I hope she's ok! She picked the wrong week!"

My dad lived out in the country in Wyoming, and there was a blizzard one year...he was in his 80s and lived alone...he got stuck at the ranch. The roads were too covered with snow for him to get out, no one else could get in, and he lost power and water for 3 days. I was sooooo worried about him. I told him next time they were expecting a snow storm, he should go stay with friends in town. It's not a good situation to be without power, or to be without water, but to be without both...yikes!!!

 

[Songbird76]

@HouCuseChickie if you wind up having to go to a hotel make sure to save all receipts including gas and food you may be eligible for funds from FEMA Also if you have to leave home turn off all the water coming into your house and run all the faucets and flush the toilet so there's no water in the pipes to freeze edit If you have glow sticks the make great night lights.

My mom used to turn all the faucets to just a little trickle to keep the water moving so the pipes wouldn't freeze.

 

[MinnieM123]

@HouCuseChickie , Glad to hear you got your power back on!

Most of the local ones were booked solid and people found out the hard way that the hotels weren't permitted to be providing heat/power to guest rooms...just halls and common areas. We probably would have had to try to get into Louisiana.

Wow--never would have thought of that--only the halls and common areas would be allowed to be heated?!

 

[Songbird76]

Thanks everyone! Power came back on later in the evening last night and so far, it's remained on. We're expected to be in the low 20s the next couple of nights, so we hope it remains on. Northern friends from high school and college used to laugh when they saw me getting nervous about winter weather down here, but this situation has made it clear that our buildings and infrastructure were never designed for real winter...because it's not normal for us to see much in the way of real winter. Yes, there are all kinds of things that are going to come up about our deregulation and grid, but it doesn't change that our homes are designed more for 110 degrees vs. 10. Obviously, we also can't change the construction style down here and will need to continue to protect the house. Some may be the age of our home that helped (we've noticed older homes here tend to have more precautions taken in the building approach) and some may be the measures we took...and a lot may be luck!

As for hotels, we would have had to drive pretty far to find one that had rooms and heat. Most of the local ones were booked solid and people found out the hard way that the hotels weren't permitted to be providing heat/power to guest rooms...just halls and common areas. We probably would have had to try to get into Louisiana. Roads have also been really bad since this part of the country doesn't have plows and only minimal access to deicing equipment.

I think we're going to start pricing a Generac. With our hurricane risk, it seems like it would be a good investment.

For future reference, (and you may already know this from living in the North before) you can keep your house warmer if you cover windows and doors with thick blankets, and roll up towels to put in front of door frames to keep wind from coming in through the cracks. We also used to tape plastic (big, clear plastic sheets) over our windows in the winter to keep the wind out. It's just a bit of added insulation. It holds the warm air inside and the cold air outside. We used to lose power a LOT when a blizzard would come through, so all those little things help.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

How is it now? They showed pictures on the news and said a bunch of people were without power and water. I immediately said to my husband, "Oh no!! One of the gals on the Disney board JUST got back from Disney and lives in Houston! I hope she's ok! She picked the wrong week!"

My dad lived out in the country in Wyoming, and there was a blizzard one year...he was in his 80s and lived alone...he got stuck at the ranch. The roads were too covered with snow for him to get out, no one else could get in, and he lost power and water for 3 days. I was sooooo worried about him. I told him next time they were expecting a snow storm, he should go stay with friends in town. It's not a good situation to be without power, or to be without water, but to be without both...yikes!!!

It's not too bad right now. We can still see some snow outside, which is totally bizarre in Houston, but we're making it. We have a hard freeze tonight with a slight chance of winter precip and another tomorrow that's expected to be dry. We still have power and will be doing everything we can to conserve while also still trying to save our pipes. Part of me wishes we were at Disney this week, but we likely would be coming home to busted pipes had we been away.

That's terrifying to be alone and cold and without so much. I think it was the blizzard of 1977 when my dad got stranded on the highway in his car. We were living in Ohio at the time and I think he had to drive to Indiana or Kentucky that day for business. He still talks about how lucky he felt to survive it. Sadly, I know a lot of people without water, but I think they're getting bottled now for drinking and have enough friends and family with showers they can use to get by. Covid, of course, complicates things, but everyone is trying to do what they can. There are some people in mid and high rise senior facilities here who are without both and people are trying to get them what they need. It's such a scary mess.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

My mom used to turn all the faucets to just a little trickle to keep the water moving so the pipes wouldn't freeze.

We've had a number of faucets going...both hot and cold...to keep things from freezing. A friend of a friend from Idaho advised people to bump it up above a trickle to more of a stream like a pencil lead because our pipes aren't winterized and insulated like northern areas...so we did something along those lines. Still, we saw some people north of us where this just wasn't enough.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

@HouCuseChickie , Glad to hear you got your power back on!



Wow--never would have thought of that--only the halls and common areas would be allowed to be heated?!

It's been crazy. Some people were still willing to go to these places because they at least still had water. Freezing...but water. At least they finally got into some of the business areas like downtown to reduce their power drain.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

For future reference, (and you may already know this from living in the North before) you can keep your house warmer if you cover windows and doors with thick blankets, and roll up towels to put in front of door frames to keep wind from coming in through the cracks. We also used to tape plastic (big, clear plastic sheets) over our windows in the winter to keep the wind out. It's just a bit of added insulation. It holds the warm air inside and the cold air outside. We used to lose power a LOT when a blizzard would come through, so all those little things help.

Oh yea...my mom advised me to cover our windows. I had the base of the doors with rolled up towels, but I found it too depressing to be in the dark with the windows covered. Thankfully, our wooden interior blinds and blackout drapes helped with some heat retention.

 

[Songbird76]

Oh yea...my mom advised me to cover our windows. I had the base of the doors with rolled up towels, but I found it too depressing to be in the dark with the windows covered. Thankfully, our wooden interior blinds and blackout drapes helped with some heat retention.

We used clear plastic over the windows all winter...you still get the light and you can see out, but it insolates a little and keeps it from getting drafty. But I don't know if it would be worth the effort for just this one storm.

 

[Sans Souci]

It's not too bad right now. We can still see some snow outside, which is totally bizarre in Houston, but we're making it. We have a hard freeze tonight with a slight chance of winter precip and another tomorrow that's expected to be dry. We still have power and will be doing everything we can to conserve while also still trying to save our pipes. Part of me wishes we were at Disney this week, but we likely would be coming home to busted pipes had we been away.

That's terrifying to be alone and cold and without so much. I think it was the blizzard of 1977 when my dad got stranded on the highway in his car. We were living in Ohio at the time and I think he had to drive to Indiana or Kentucky that day for business. He still talks about how lucky he felt to survive it. Sadly, I know a lot of people without water, but I think they're getting bottled now for drinking and have enough friends and family with showers they can use to get by. Covid, of course, complicates things, but everyone is trying to do what they can. There are some people in mid and high rise senior facilities here who are without both and people are trying to get them what they need. It's such a scary mess.

I know it sucks to be in the middle of a freak winter storm, instead of WDW. But imagine if your pipes had burst while you were away. You could have so much water damage in the house. That would have been a nightmare--not just the shock of coming home to that, but it would probably be a while before you could get someone to repair the damage, seeing this was a wide scale issue. Who knows how long you would have had to wait for a contractor?

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I know it sucks to be in the middle of a freak winter storm, instead of WDW. But imagine if your pipes had burst while you were away. You could have so much water damage in the house. That would have been a nightmare--not just the shock of coming home to that, but it would probably be a while before you could get someone to repair the damage, seeing this was a wide scale issue. Who knows how long you would have had to wait for a contractor?

I completely agree. We have one more night of hard freeze conditions with this winter weather and I'm praying we make it through without any issues. We did find out that our side business had a pipe burst. They have everyone they need to fix it, but can't get the supplies. What's really frustrating is that we're selling this property. We were supposed to close before WDW, but there was a delay with the title company. Still, it could be so much worse.

 

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

Checking with an hour long workout. I made my weekly loaf of sourdough bread. Next week is definitely going to be baguettes. I'm just craving something different and I haven't made any baguettes since May, I think?

My husband's "big boss" went to another bank back in December. Before she left, she told my husband that she needed a lot of help and that she was hoping she could create a role for him. Today, she sent him an email saying she got approval for this role and it is going to be posted in the system on Monday. She also said she hopes he will apply for this job and she cc'd his immediate boss. It is in NYC, though. He is hoping he could commute in for a few days a week (and get a studio apt) and not have to be there everyday. I am hoping he can do that, because I don't want to be in a situation where I am alone M-F.

 

[Sans Souci]

I completely agree. We have one more night of hard freeze conditions with this winter weather and I'm praying we make it through without any issues. We did find out that our side business had a pipe burst. They have everyone they need to fix it, but can't get the supplies. What's really frustrating is that we're selling this property. We were supposed to close before WDW, but there was a delay with the title company. Still, it could be so much worse.

Oh, no. Was there a lot of damage?