Texas Winter

I never cease to be thankful I live in the South. But I am all the more thankful during the winter months. In Texas, we don't think about things like snowplowing our driveways, or putting snow chains on our vehicles, or bundling up in 15 layers to leave the house for 20 minutes. Or, wrapping our pipes. Even when the weatherman declares the arrival of below-freezing temps, we kind of shrug and figure it's not that big a deal, as it will only be below freezing for a couple of hours, at the most. And, then in two days it'll be 70 again. Oh, we'll usually bring our plants and pets inside. And, then we'll think about how we'll have to wear our heavy coats for two days. And, then we'll probably make sure all the extra blankets are clean and accessible and that the coffee pot doesn't run out of water. Which, brings me back to that point about wrapping the pipes. It always seems like such a gigantic headache to wrap pipes for the possibility of a couple of hours of freezing temps. But, this morning, when I rolled out of bed to the sound of my alarm for the first time in weeks, and stumbled into the bathroom and blindly spun the shower faucet, only to be met with complete silence and an over abundance of dryness, I realized that it might have been a good idea for us to wrap our pipes. And, then I looked at my phone and saw that the temperature was 21 degrees with a "feels like" temperature of 12. For a moment, I thought there was a problem with the app. Like when Facebook reports that you are posting from Fargo, ND, when you've never even been there. But, no, the temperature reading was correct and we were absolutely, positively without water. Knowing what a bear I am if I don't get my morning shower, my sweet hubby hopped out of the toasty bed, donned his heavy coat and went outside to address the problem. He built a fire near the pressure tank, stole water from the hot tub to drench the pipes and poured boiling water snatched from wherever we could find it on the pipes. He did this for hours. And, the water in the pipes was literally freezing as fast as we could thaw it. So, we called a plumber. He got the pipes all thawed out, wrote me a receipt, gave me his card and then stopped by to check on his handiwork, only to find (at the exact same moment that we discovered we still didn't have water in the house), that the pipes were frozen up again. He thawed them out again (for no extra charge) and instructed me to get everything wrapped up as tightly and as quickly as I could possible manage. Which brings me back to the need to have a steady stream of water in the coffee pot, as I will likely never be warm again. Until Friday, when the temperature is expected to creep back up to near 70. My hat's off to all my friends who live, say, north of Dallas and have actual winter to deal with. I have absolutely no idea how you do it!