an icy cold day in Texas...

...and I mean COLD!  It is Day 2 of an Icy Snowy Cold day in Texas!  I slept in till 10am only to wake up to a freezing house and no power. It would have been one thing, but when your body hurts all over and you feel like crud and want a hot cup of tea and can't have one, life is not too peachy. I hate to complain because we have things so good but I really didn't want to deal with that! I posted on Facebook that I was without power and a x-co-worker posted that they were doing rolling blackouts for about 15minutes to conserve energy. She told me that she thought I would want to know since I don't have a TV. I thanked her and told her it had been out for 3 hours so far (I learned that from a neighbor I texted messaged after texting her, Auntie Con and Sylvia). I then got a text from the girls at Dr. C's office letting me know that they were in today (2 of them were) and could I bring their checks. I said sure but then got to thinking how was I going to get my car out of the garage with no power? I tried for 20minutes to get the stupid thing unlatched, in the dark with a flashlight. No success. In frustration, frozen cold, no ounce of energy left in my body, I came back in the house, crawled under the covers wanting to cry.  I layed there and then texted Sylvia back that it didn't work. She said she would come help me.  I waited like 10minutes and she didn't come, so I went back out and tried again for like 10minutes.  I gave up.  I just couldn't get it unlatched.  Sylvia arrived, she was really kind...totally made my day and brought me a cup of HOT TEA!!!  I was a bit bent out of shape as it had been 2 hours and I had gotten nothing done and I was completely drained and exhausted! Sylvia got it unlatched on the second or third try...still have no clue what I was doing wrong and how she so easily got it done.  I then left for my clients office.  In one way, the driving conditions were decent, in another way, I have never seen them like this in Texas. Even last winter's ice/snow over December Camp was nothing like this year! The roads were slick and frozen even in the middle of the day, course the temperatures never got very high so it wasn't possible for it to thaw. I did fine, but saw several spin outs and wrecks. I am amazed at how many don't know how to drive during these times. I find they are either dangerously cautious, or drive way too fast for the conditions, and fail to watch for the other driver's mistakes.  I delivered payroll to Dr. C's office. He was concerned about how sick I sounded, so he listened to my chest, said I am wheezing (which I knew) and wrote me a script for an antibiotic. He said to fill it if I am not better tomorrow or the next day or if I get worse. I ended up hanging out at the office just to get warm and check my email since I had no internet at the house with not having any power. Even though I have wireless internet, it doesn't work if the hub doesn't have power and I can't check certain emails or my work email yet on my cell phone, plus it eats up battery fast and it was draining really quickly with all I had going on via texts and phone calls and internet usage for the morning. I charged my phone to and from the office since I didn't know when my power would be back on. I then stopped at Panda Express on my way back to get some hot food! It wasn't exactly what I was in the mood for, but I needed something warm and couldn't think of anything good or fast or close to the freeway that inspired me. I also went to the post office and mailed what should have gone out on Monday. All in all, I ended up being without power for a bit over 6 hours. It did not quit for 2 hours when it came back on. I had a fire this afternoon and it felt good to get real warm. I am now out of firewood. I have been trying to save money and felt it wasn't "a need" to have a fire in the house, so I hadn't bought more. This will teach me to always have a good stash as you don't know what kind of weather you will have and in light of all my appliances and house being electric only, I need to have some way to stay slightly warm.  Being sick, cold and not able to have HOT food was a whole new experience today.