I'm beyond happy that our freak winter storm is history and we're back to our more seasonal temps versus the meat locker we experienced last week. We had a second big snowfall that lasted most of Thursday, coating everything in the pretty white stuff. But by then nobody was appreciating it because pipes were frozen, the electricity was off and it was just miserable for lots of folks. We lived in layers of clothes all last week, usually topped with a warm and fuzzy robe.
We hit the road to the lake house on Saturday to see how it fared in the frigid weather. As we drove further north into the Texas hill country, we saw unmelted patches of snow as well as several smashed up autos that undoubtedly took a ride on the icy roadway and went boom. Plus a moving truck that had jackknifed and was laying on its side just off the shoulder. I hope the drivers weren't hurt! A lot of Texans don't know how to drive in the rain, let alone snow and ice.
As we crossed the Pedernales River bridge just north of Johnson City, I realized the water's surface was solidly frozen right before the dam.
Sure enough, there was still ice floating atop the pool at our lake house in the shallow end. Thankfully, we had left our pool pump on the ice emergency setting to keep the waterfalls flowing to circulate water the entire time it was below freezing up there.
Alas, we didn't turn the water to our lake house back on at the street because we figured the line to the meter might still be partially frozen. So we'll have to make the trek back up there next weekend to get the water going and check for leaks in our pipes. I've decided not to crank up our sprinkler system until we're solidly past the chance of any more freezes. Now I'm just giving my landscaping at both houses a bit of time to see what recovers, and what will need to be replaced. The plumbers and garden centers will be booming businesses in the next month as folks recover from this rare arctic plunge.
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