Saturday, February 13, 2010

Surviving the Great Dallas Blizzard

Some have called it Snowpocalypse, others Snowmageddon, but no matter what you call it it sucked!

Dallas received over a foot of snow, and though to folks in the great white north that is just a mild annoyance, to us here in Dallas it's a record breaker. Dallas has no snowploughs, no snow emergency routes and no real provisions for tons of heavy wet snow. The show broke tree limbs across the area and as they sagged or fell they in turn broke power lines. Voila! A full fledged mess.

Over 250,000 homes without power including ours! So, we toughed it out for a night and then wimped out and moved to a hotel. The first hotel, a friendly La Quinta on Central Expressway had rooms available, even though the town is packed for the NBA All-Star game Friday night. We arrived, My aging Aunt and Cousin in tow, since their house was dark and cold as well, only to find the hotel had lights but no heat. That is a deal breaker for sure.

The folks at La Quinta were very helpful and they did find us a room for the night...in Irving, Texas. So we trucked across town and ensconces ourselves in the hotel. After a nice dinner at the Outback with my Aunt and cousin we spend a warm cozy night in Irving.

This morning we called our house and the answering machine failed to pick up. Making an exploratory trip we found the house fully powered and warm, the cats serenely asleep on the bed greeting us with insouciance. But hey they are cats and that is what they do. We checked my Aunt's house and she did not have power, so I treated them to another night at the hotel should they need it.

All in all quite a little adventure and all because of the pretty white stuff that falls from the sky.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, my ass!

Update 2/14/10 - Not so fast! Well we had a nice dinner out and returned home last night to a dark street. Power out yet again! So, we spent the night with friends and finally today the electricity is back on. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

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