38+ hours without power
Feb. 16th, 2021 04:04 pmIf you follow me on Instagram, you know most of this already.
The winter storm came on Sunday night to the Houston area. We had power until about midnight. From what I understand, the city was supposed to do these rolling blackouts to try to conserve power because the demand on power was super big since Houston/Texas doesn't normally get crazy cold winter storms. So we started getting a rolling blackout, only doing the rolling blackouts taxed the system and our power went off and never came back on.
Our house wasn't bad in the morning. I even went outside to see the winter stuff. We ended up getting ice, not snow. I finally had a reason to wear the Bucc-ees onesie that I bought like three years ago.
We're luckier than most people because we were probably a little more prepared than they were thanks to hiking and camping. We had a lot of blankets, zero degree sleeping bags, nonperishable camping food that doesn't expire until like 2026 and headlamps. Also, we have gas, so our stove still worked, and we could light it with a lighter, so we could get hot water and cook and things. We also have a lot of portable battery backups to charge our phones and things because we camp a lot without electricity, so we were able to use those to keep our phones powered.
It wasn't too bad as it started, but it got colder and colder and colder. The Texas power grid is a fucking mess [read about it here: https://spacecityweather.com/the-power-situation-is-disastrous-and-it-likely-wont-be-fixed-tonight/ ] and we were basically told that we were fucked and just had to pray that we didn't freeze to death. We didn't lose water, so we were lucky with that too. But by the time it was dark, I was in two onesies and under about ten different blankets just to stay warm. We stayed in the living room because it's the most central room of the house and also because we wanted to encourage the kitties to cuddle with us because we were more worried about them than us.
Luckily we were successful with that. Hammy slept on me for most of the night, Cujo/Sorin slept cuddled with J, Gandalf slept in his favorite cat bed, which we brought downstairs and J put hot hands under it to keep him warm. Litty did her own thing, we have no idea where she was for most of the night, but she's fine. And throughout the day, I hade a lot of cats cuddling on me, and we tried to cover them with blankets when they would tolerate it.
I entertained myself by constantly refreshing Twitter [the best source for news, also doom scrolling] and trying to read books on kindle. Justin mostly played his switch. We ate camping food and tried to make as much hot chocolate as we could tolerate. I'm not gonna sugar coat it, it was fucking terrible. By this morning, it was down to thirty something degrees in our house, and even all the blankets didn't seem to be enough.
My coworker Kendra saw my messages on Instagram and even offered to house all of our kitties so that they wouldn't freeze. I cannot even tell you how much that meant to me. We were more worried about them than us. Justin's mom had power, so she also offered her house and we were going to bring the kitties there. Then around 11:30, our power finally came back on after 38+ hours. We're okay now and we just hope we stay okay. We're also lucky enough that none of our food in the fridge or freeze got spoiled.
There's another ice storm coming tonight, but we live south of Houston in Brazoria county, so it will probably just be rain for us, so hopefully that'll help us keep power. It's also above freezing at the moment. We don't have water, at the moment. We had water up until this afternoon [and I can't even tell you how wonderful my hot shower felt] but now it is off. It is not an us issue, our pipes are fine, we're lucky unlike other people. A water pipe downtown burst and they're doing their best to fix it, but they had to turn the water off for that to happen. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. We have A LOT to drink because I am addicted to Gatorade and we had just stocked up on that a few days before from Costco, we we have plenty. So I'm not too worried about that and we also have bottled water in the garage that we can refill the kitties water with.
Our heat is acting weird. It's not broken, per se, but apparently the sensor is fucked up and has been for awhile [things I never knew]. Apparently the sensor for the AC is fine, but not the heater. We've never straight on has the heater turn on, like it's always been AC then we change it to heater. So our heater went to like 80 degrees and we had to shut it off and we reset the breaker. Then we let it rest for about an hour and turned it on to AC and we'll try to change it from AC to heat and see if that makes it functional. I doubt we'd be able to get the HVAC people over for a few days, at the very least, so hopefully that works.
Brian still has no power and no water. We invited him over. A lot of the roads are a mess, but I did find a way to get him here safely albeit taking a bit longer than it normally would. I'm not sure if he will take us up on the offer, I hope he does, as it is currently above freezing and the roads don't have ice, at the moment. Tonight, he's getting an ice storm since he lives in Houston, and I'm not sure if he can do another night in a freezing cold house with no heat and water. I hope he's on his way.
School has been canceled for basically the rest of the week. It was already canceled yesterday and today. It is now canceled tomorrow and Thursday. If we do have school on Friday, it will be virtual school, so nobody has to risk going to work and it will be asynchronous work.
I think that's it. Just keep us in your thoughts and hope that we keep our power. On the bright side, if we do lose power, though I really hope we don't, I think we'll at least be better off tonight than we were yesterday since we've had an opportunity to restore our power. Please keep Texans in your thoughts, there are so many people without power, and they're not used to weather like this and are in a lot worse condition than we are.
Secret Santa 2k19
Dec. 24th, 2019 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alorarose from the annual Secret Santa that ikel89 runs.First of all, thank you both for answering my frantic emails. It wasn't you, at all. We got a brand new mailman about a month ago. I am not a fan. I ordered a package from eBay in early November, and it was from Italy. I knew it would take a long time to get to me because international and all, so I didn't think much of it. About three weeks ago, the seller on eBay messaged me to tell me I needed to get the package from the post office because it had been there for several weeks and was on the verge of being sent back to Italy. New mailman DID NOT bother to deliver my package nor did he bother to put one of those slips in our mailbox to tell me I had to go to the post office to sign for the package like they're supposed to.
Since this is a "secret" worldwide Santa, I was worried about the same thing happening. I didn't care if it ended up in the post office, I would just drive and go get it, I was just worried it came and was sitting in the post office and I had no idea it was there nor would I have known how long it had been there [if it was there]. And since we're leaving on the 28th for our next adventure, I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything from my negligent mailman. So thank you both again, for dealing with my anxiety.
Onto the goodies:
Here's the letter from
alorarose that came with the package, I absolutely loved the rainbow pens. Also, there's no such thing as TOO MUCH unicorn when it comes to me, so no worries ;)[also that's the stuffed Ditto that J got me for the 2nd night of Hannukkah, so far it has not brought me luck for pumpkaboo shiny breeding in Pokemon Shield]
LOOK AT ALL THE AMAZING STICKERS, I seriously want to just write more Christmas/Holiday cards even though I sent all of them already just so I can use those stickers on the envelopes!! I absolutely love them :) Stickers are one of my weird guilty pleasures, thank for indulging ;)
And washi tape... I LOVE ME SOME WASHI TAPE, and it is so cute. I also just got a new container for an attempt to organize my washi tape collection, which has seriously expanded this year, and I am a bit too excited about organized all my washi tape in ROY G BIV order.
I send cards all year for every single holiday to my MIL, and she has grown to expect washi tape and stickers on them, so I'm excited to have even more stickers and washi tape to surprise her with ;)
Also, these are my favorite pens in the entire world, I use them for everything... ADHD induced sketching/drawing at teacher training, addressing envelopes, writing what time kiddos arrive/leave/are absent in my classroom planner, lesson-planning on whatever random paper I can find in my house or my Alice in Wonderland planner, Justin steals them to grade his papers... they are my everything. And unicorn colors are BEYOND AWESOME.
Meet next year's planning journal :) I love it.
And thank you for the ornaments. One is already on the tree, as you can see, next to a reindeer I made with my kiddos last year. The other will be on the tree as soon as I find a picture of Hammy to go in it [Sorry Justin, I love Hammy more than you]
Thank you so much for the amazing package
alorarose [and of course to ikel89 for organizing another year of surprises :)] I hope you have a wonderful Christmas/New Years, and I love absolutely everything.donors choose
Aug. 17th, 2017 08:32 pmI'm doing a donors choose to try to raise money for social play items for my students, if you can afford to give anything, even five dollars, it'd be much appreciated, or even just sharing it on your facebook or twitter or even livejournal :)
Thank you
Last Alaskan Cruise entry ;)
Jun. 26th, 2017 06:25 pmJune 6th, 2017 Northern California
This will be the last entry that I write on the cruise ship. I mean I’ll probably write one more entry to describe the journey back to Texas and such, but this was the last day of the cruise. And I’m sorry to say that today was an extremely boring day and there really aren’t any exciting stories. The distance traveled on the cruise from San Francisco to Alaska and back to San Francisco was 3161 Nautical Miles.
Today was the last day of the cruise, the last day is always sad, I mean the ship sort of becomes like a mini home for a week or so… you really get to know your waiters and you recognize people that you’ve crossed paths with during the cruise, and in a way, it’s like leaving your family.
Justin and I slept pretty late today since we had nothing to rush to. We hung out in the room, playing our various video-gaming systems until we met my parents for lunch around noon. For lunch, I attempted to order grilled cheese. The cooks didn’t really understand exactly what grilled cheese was, so they gave me partially toasted bread with barely melted American cheese on it, but know what? Cheese and bread taste really good no matter what shape or form they come in, so it was fine. I also had some chocolate chip ice cream on top of chocolate chip cookies for dessert and that tasted good as well.
After lunch, Justin and I came back to our room and started packing… well okay, Justin started packing, and I played more video games, I’m very a much a last minute type of person. I mean I ALWAYS get things done, but I find if I plan things too early, I’m more likely to forget things, which I suppose seems contradictory, but that’s just how I am?
Justin and I had our final massage at 3:30; we had a 100 minute seaweed wrap massage. Basically, they cover you in this seaweed paste stuff, and wrap you in tinfoil like a burrito or sushi or something, and then you sit there for about fifteen minutes as the seaweed detoxifies your skin or something. It didn’t feel bad? I sort of felt like my entire body was burning, but it wasn’t burning in an uncomfortable way or anything, it sort of felt like your skin would feel if you put icy hot or bengay on it or something similar, it was sort of a burning tingling feeling. After the fifteen minutes, we showered, and washed the seaweed paste off, and then we had a regular full-body massage, and it felt good. I like massages.
After the massage, we got pizza. Justin says the thing he’ll probably miss most about the cruise is the ability to walk up on flight of steps and be able to get as many slices of pizzas or diet cokes as he wants. Then we went back to our room, and I finally started packing.
After packing, we met my parents for our last dinner with Herbert and Jasper. The last meal is always sad to me. I had chicken fingers and mashed potatoes [yes I eat like a six year old] and Justin had a New York Strip Steak, which he said was good. For dessert, we had Baked Alaska, which is the best dessert in the entire world. It’s basically burned marshmallow surrounding chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream and it’s amazing. Since we didn’t have traditional dining, we didn’t get the Basked Alaska parade like I had on my Iceland cruise, but that’s okay because I’m sure the junior waiters are probably really embarrassed when they have to dance around with a fake dessert on their head. But our waiters, the good sports that they are, put on a mini Baked Alaska dance for my mother complete with napkin waving, a fake dessert, and glasses with blinking LED lights.
After dinner, Justin and I went down to the internet café so we could print our boarding passes for our flights tomorrow. I know we can check into our flights at the airport, but this is more for our own peace of mind. Then we came back to the room, and packed some last minute stuff [like the clothes we were wearing for dinner] and now we’re just killing time before we go to bed. Justin is played Switch and I’m writing this entry.
Tomorrow, we catch our ride back to SFO airport, and then our flight to Dallas is at 3:45 pm, and we’ll get to Houston around 11 pm, which really sucks since we both have to go back to reality and work on Thursday, and not only will we be jet-lagged by two hours, we’ll barely get any sleep before we have to wake up, oh and we’re both getting sick and catching colds.
But overall, the cruise was a lot of fun. Justin did say he would go on another cruise, if the opportunity ever presented itself to him. It was nice to get a break from reality, and it was amazing to explore Alaska, I loved Alaska. I’ve visited a lot of the states now, I think I’ve visited close to 40… a lot of the lower 48, but I haven’t visited Hawaii yet, and we’re missing some of the northern states like North and South Dakota, for example, and some random states in the middle of the US like Kentucky and Oklahoma…. But anyways, out of all the states I’ve visited, Alaska is certainly one of my favorites.
It will be sort of nice to get back to the world of internet and social media, but it’s been really nice to not have internet and be able to actually relax and disconnect from the world without worrying about who’s engaged or pregnant on facebook, or what your favorite celebrities are doing on Instagram, though I am looking forward to sharing all the photos I took on the cruise and the stories about Alaska with my friends.
And that’s it for our cruise to Alaska. I hope you all enjoyed following along on our vacation and that you enjoyed the stories and pictures.
If you'd like to follow along on our trip, this is our official travel blog: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/jzsquared/4/tpod.html [even Justin updates it] or you can follow me on Instagram at @lyssajamie13
Have a great week y'all!
Bored Meme
Jul. 22nd, 2013 08:46 pm![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
developingwingsWe all know each other on LJ. Some better than others. Sometimes, posts don't say everything about us. Sometimes we wonder if it would be rude to ask a personal question, so we don't. Is there anything about me you want to ask? This is your chance to ask me anything about me/my life. I'm pretty open, when it comes to myself, and I like to talk about myself
I did remember to turn off IP address logging and enable anonymous postings this time :P At least, I think I did it right.
So fire away... Unbore me, since I can't really do much anyways :P
FRIENDS CUT
Aug. 5th, 2012 10:45 pmIf you think I did it in error, or want to be my friend, I'll re-add you.
This wasn't meant to offend anyone.
FRIENDS CUT
Oct. 3rd, 2011 07:30 pmMost of you stayed.
I cut you if, you've never commented on my journal about anything. Or if you haven't updated in about 2-3 months nor had any activity on lj during that time period. Or if I just feel like we don't have much in common.
If I've cut you and you'd like to be re-added, please just let me know, I'll be glad to re-add you. It was nothing personal to begin with.
FRIENDS CUT
Mar. 1st, 2011 08:33 pmIf you think I've cut you in error and want to be readded, comment here, and I will, if you want to know if you've been cut or not, click this: http://starlyss.livejournal.com/67744.html since it's the last locked entry I've made.
Again, it's nothing personal
