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Thatās good to hear! Youāve been in my thoughts every day, so thank you for the update!!
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It may be trite, but things become trite for a reason: This too shall pass.
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Power went down Thursday.
Trees came down after we moved our car and truck. We moved them in time, thanks to a heads up from neighbor.
Power restored a few hours ago (Saturday=today).
Digging out of a lot of fallen trees and a house that got to 47Ā°F.
I have to concur w Pterry Pratchett.
Civilization really is hot water, good dentistry, and soft lavatory paper.
Now all we have to deal with the nearly dry well, and the fridge full of rotten food.
We are healthy, warm and dry today and thatāll do for now.
ETA: typo
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Whoa. Thatās super fortunate, and talk about being a good neighbor. Thatās an awesome neighbor!
That first part sucks, but Iām glad to hear youāre okay.
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Iām so sorry your power went out for so long. The ice accumulation has really devastated the trees. We went to finally buy our new car in North Austin and just wow. So much destruction . The live oaks definitely got the worst of it.
We estimated a half inch of ice on our trees. Luckily theyāre red oaks and had no leaves, So we only lost two branches and they didnāt fall on anything. We also got to keep our power the entire time. All around we were very lucky.
For the last 2 days all I can hear in the neighborhood is chainsaws. It makes me so sad
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That was my parentsā neighborhood a couple of years ago when we had a big ice storm. It looked like a bomb went off. The city spent months clearing tree debris, and cut it all up for firewood that was free for residents to take. There is still a big pile of firewood there.
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Just a heads-up, to you or anyone else in a climate that is used to warmth rather than cold:
If you put your refrigerator stuff in insulated bags sitting in the snow outside, maybe on a balcony away from animals, that actually works great. Or in an unheated garage. Let nature do the chilling for you!
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Great idea. But.
We have a lot of animals: hungry wild animal-animals.
The raccoons alone can get into a sealed 5-gallon plastic bucket with a twist lid.
If I leave food in the car, then the mice and rats find it.
Ideally, Iād have a steel lockbox like the bear-proof boxes I see in some campgrounds, but my planning and timing are off.
Yesterday I cut a snake out of the windowsill, it got caught in the ziptape tryna get out of the cold and ice. Pretty sure it froze to death.
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You might as well move to Australia, with that kind of natural environment all around you!
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I remain grateful I am not surrounded by poisonous marine life, poisonous snakes (sea and land), poisonous spiders, poisonous insects, and what-all.
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Lotta chainsaws cutting down the oaks that barely survived the droughts.
Blackjack oaks thicker than I am, snapped in half from the 1"+ ice.
The saddest part is how hot this place will be without shademakers. We are losing the canopy even as the heat increases. Climate change is a real bastard. Hotter heat, colder colds, drier droughts, and wetter wet periods.
Itās a dang miracle that the soil biology has hung on for as long as it has here in CenTex. No shade=heated soil and crashed soil biota. Something like 70-90% of this planetās flora has a relationship with one or more mycorrhizae.
https://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/hcol/mycorrhizae.asp.html
No life in the soil pretty much means no life, period.
(Anyone living off of all foodstuff the oceans can produce is likely to experience similar problems now or soon.)
Fuck it, man, I will try to end on an upnote:
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I feel you on the weather angle. Central heating is very rare here in Tijuana, and the nights have been dipping into the mid-40s. 
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Iām still struggling financially, but if I can just sell 5 more paintings within the next couple of weeks, so many problems will melt away. I have a very reasonable (depending upon your definition of reasonable) offer on my thread if anyone can help me spread the word.
Re: Knoxbloxās Re-Animated Blank Canvas
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Iāve been having a rough go lately with lots and lots of stress leading to a fairly long stretch of depression, but that was the past. Today I am VERY OK!
I finally got my separation agreement with my ex signed, and weāve officially filed for divorce. This process has been long and frustrating, with far too many delays, but thatās finally done.
With that settled, I was already in a good mood, but just now I got another piece of news Iāve been waiting for, and it was exactly what Iād hoped. I got a new job! Iāll be back in infosec in higher education, and Iāll be moving away from this backwater to a city Iāve long wanted to live in. Bye bye Saskatoon, hello Vancouver!
Iām practically bouncing off the walls!
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Congrats!
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Vancouver? Iām envious. Itās my favorite big city in North America.
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