Snowmaggedon...and you thought you had it bad...

In honor of Snowmaggedon, I'm posting "Jack in January Snow."

I've been stuck in the house since Monday evening when the ice storm followed by snow hit. I know many of you are in the same boat. We knew it was coming and prepared by buying groceries on the way home from work (day job as a Senior Graphic/Web Designer in Ft. Worth). I got the last of the broccoli and carrots and 2 of the last 5 red bell peppers and was surprised those were on people's must have list. What we weren't prepared for was that our relatively new furnace would cease functioning.

At 10 pm Tuesday, we suspected we had a problem when the inside temp dipped noticeably. Did I mention the ice storm? No one from the Heat/AC company was willing to venture out to help us. I dug out a couple of electric heaters and a heating pad. Our main worry was the parrots. At least the dogs and cats had their own personal fur coats. The receptionist, who the Heat/AC company phone was forwarding to, sitting in her nice WARM house, says nothing could be done. We moved the parrots to the bathroom and left the overhead heater running and got the temperature up to near 60 for them at least.

Wednesday morning the house was at 44 degrees and I had 3 cats sleeping on me. Within minutes the power goes off. Crap! What is going on. Now we think this is even more serious than just the heater. It's off from 7am to 7:15am, oddly precise. I turn the TV on as soon as we regain power to find out that we are experiencing rolling brownouts because several power plants failed overnight and the remaining ones can't cover the dramatically increased load. (Note: The majority of Texas is it's own self-contained power grid. If you'd like to read "why Texas has its own power grid" visit http://www.slate.com/id/2087133/)

Another call to the Heat/AC company, toasty warm woman answers and is reluctant to do anything. We knew one of their techs lived somewhere in our neighborhood, my husband asked (just short of demanded) his phone number and got it. The man said he was unable to navigate his driveway, but he did talk my husband through checking several possibilities to no avail. Everything seemed fine. My husband (who grew up in Kentucky and thinks that all Texas drivers are wimps when it comes to winter weather) drove over to the tech's house, brought him back to our house and made him a cup of coffee to help keep warm. The dogs were thrilled with the visitor and insisted on 'helping' him. At least the running around was keeping them warm. The outside temperature was in the single digits and I was unrecognizable with my 3 layers of clothes, a coat and hat, plus a blanket draped around me.

The issue was with a couple of pressure valves "that never break." Of course they needed to be ordered. Why stock something that never breaks and no one was at work there either to place an order. He did give us a small space heater to add to our collection. After several tripped breakers, we finally figured out what we could plug in where. The dogs pretty quickly found that the prime spots were in front of the heater and I had several cats vying to lay on me with the heating pad. Still freezing, even with the heaters, we called Home Depot to make sure someone was actually there, "please come buy something" was the response. I just wanted to get in the car with the heater cranked all the way up. The roads, weren't really all that bad. The bridge over the lake on 51 was significantly ice free. The landscape was lovely as were several frozen fountains we passed. Unfortunately, Home Depot only had 3 propane heaters left, which we didn't really want. Next stop Lowe's down the road. They were in better shape and we came home with 2 ceramic heaters.

We set the new heaters up in the bedroom. The only place in the house without a vaulted ceiling. I put the smaller, borrowed heater in the adjoining bathroom and we gathered up 3 parrots, 5 dogs, 5 cats and us and went into the bedroom. At least we tried to. This was a little too much closeness for a few who have now chosen to stay in the colder parts of the house, though we have forcibly made them stay in the room long enough to warm up periodically through the day. Plus the oldest dog, seems to be having a bit of a gas issue.

We're in good shape to wait this out, right? Husband tries to take a shower, I try to paint in my normal area, which is not in the warm bedroom. Another rolling brownout rolls in. Husband walks back to where I am. I think he's waiting for the power to come back on. Not it...the shower drain is frozen and the water just fills up the basin. Sigh...really? Really! How did we offend thee lady Karma. I try to paint once the power is back on, but numb fingers and toes make it quite uncomfortable. It's time to call it a day.

39 degrees in the house Thursday morning. I wake with a Border Collie and a German Shepherd wedged between me and my husband. My intent was to brave the ice and go to work to warm up, though the local news was still adamant that people should stay off the roads if possible. Schools were still closed. We decided that the birds would freeze to death and/or the pipes would freeze if we turned off the space heaters and we certainly didn't want them running if we weren't here. Since the clutch went out on my car on Friday, we didn't want to leave one of us stranded without transportation, so we both stayed home.

"Oh, well we can't very well send someone to Carrollton to pick up the parts with ice still on the roads. It will probably be Monday," says the unsympathetic woman who I now wish was trapped in her house with the thermostat stuck at 100. It's 39 degrees in our house! She wouldn't last 10 minutes over here. Sooooooo, do you think you can have them overnight the parts directly to our house instead of waiting for the roads to be better to send someone? She'll see. Grumble. Grumble.

So I can't watch TV, because that room is freezing. I can't paint comfortably. I can't take a shower.

Yes, something else can still go wrong. You guessed it, the toilet drain is frozen. If you wait, the bowl will drain, liquid...eventually. Not paper...or other things. Husband makes a bathroom run into town. So I sit here on the bed. Currently 3 dogs, 3 cats and the 3 parrots. The number of furry creatures changes at least once every 30 minutes as someone wants in or out. We feel like hotel doormen, but the parts should arrive sometime tomorrow and I will be waiting anxiously for the delivery driver on Friday. I thought snow days were supposed to be fun.

About the painting:

"Jack in January Snow"

Water-Soluble Oils on Canvas Board

11" x 16.5" note: dimensions are unframed size comes framed

$495

See all of Rebecca's work at rebeccazook.com