Do you need to vent about things COVID-19?

[Ceka Cianci]

1 minute ago, Luna Bliss said:

Yeah it's bad...in addition to slowing down the vaccine rollout people are freezing to death or dying in their homes & cars due to carbon monoxide poisoning. I'm seriously thinking of getting a generator or a type of heating device that runs on propane for future events like this -- supposedly they say there's no danger of carbon monoxide poisoning with certain types but I'm wary.

Rolling blackouts are occurring, some even deliberate as they try to lessen the stress on the system and keep the power grid alive.

I've never seen it this cold for this long of a stretch.

I looked out my window this morning and there is a foot of snow out there.. They said by us the cold should be over, the real bad cold, but we may not be out of the woods with the snow and mix of rain.. But Saturday things should start to warm and we are supposed to get rain Tuesday.. Just  regular rain which will wash whatever snow and ice is left, away..

What you need to invest in is a generator or backup system for your furnace or whatever kind of heat you are using..

If you lose power, you just switch over to your backup power..

A lot of people give preppers crap because people think they are prepping for an apocalypse, but really it's for times just like this that are going to come again..

If anyone around you goes down, you are up and running and can give them shelter..

It's really worth it to see what a generator or backup power would run.. you don't have to run everything, just the necessities..

These are neighbor meeting times..

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I looked out my window this morning and there is a foot of snow out there.. They said by us the cold should be over, the real bad cold, but we may not be out of the woods with the snow and mix of rain.. But Saturday things should start to warm and we are supposed to get rain Tuesday.. Just  regular rain which will wash whatever snow and ice is left, away..

What you need to invest in is a generator or backup system for your furnace or whatever kind of heat you are using..

If you lose power, you just switch over to your backup power..

A lot of people give preppers crap because people think they are prepping for an apocalypse, but really it's for times just like this that are going to come again..

If anyone around you goes down, you are up and running and can give them shelter..

It's really worth it to see what a generator or backup power would run.. you don't have to run everything, just the necessities..

These are neighbor meeting times..

I have a whole house, LP, auto switch over generator in the barn. It's been there for more than 20 years and the only time it runs is when I test it. Still, I'm glad I have it.

I'm surprised by all the frozen pipe damage in Texas. Apparently people there don't know how to drain their plumbing in advance of a freeze. Water damage from cracked pipes can nearly total a house. Building codes in Wisconsin require supply plumbing be gravity drainable, so you can cover most of your vulnerabilities by opening all your faucets and draining water from the low-point tap. Wisconsin cabin owners always have anti-freeze on the shelf for sink drains and toilets.

Even in Texas, I'd recommend learning about winterizing along with purchasing small generators and/or heaters.

Homes are like lovers. The best way to lose one is to fail to understand it.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Madelaine McMasters

[Luna Bliss]

2 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I looked out my window this morning and there is a foot of snow out there.. They said by us the cold should be over, the real bad cold, but we may not be out of the woods with the snow and mix of rain.. But Saturday things should start to warm and we are supposed to get rain Tuesday.. Just  regular rain which will wash whatever snow and ice is left, away..

What you need to invest in is a generator or backup system for your furnace or whatever kind of heat you are using..

If you lose power, you just switch over to your backup power..

A lot of people give preppers crap because people think they are prepping for an apocalypse, but really it's for times just like this that are going to come again..

If anyone around you goes down, you are up and running and can give them shelter..

It's really worth it to see what a generator or backup power would run.. you don't have to run everything, just the necessities..

These are neighbor meeting times..

Yeah if I choose to stay here I'm probably going to need to invest in something like that as the climate continues to get more extreme, but all types look expensive. I like the battery powered ones as no fuel would need to be added, but of course they're the most expensive! I think it might be best just to leave my house behind, though I'll miss the extensive garden I created, as it's simply getting too expensive to maintain a house -- just the house insurance alone here in tornado alley is well over 200.00 monthly, and then taxes on top of that. Not to mention all the maintenance (like the new roof I need). I'm kind of longing to move to a little apartment or community building where all this is taken care of.

But so far so good, for me at least. My heat has stayed on so no frozen pipes, though I did hear a strange crack yesterday. I've got a few plumbers phone numbers handy so they could dig their way through the snow and turn off the water supply to my home if something broke.

Don't get out on those roads till all the ice is gone!

[Luna Bliss]

28 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I'm surprised by all the frozen pipe damage in Texas. Apparently people there don't know how to drain their plumbing in advance of a freeze.

Homes are like lovers. The best way to lose one is to fail to understand it.

I don't think these people knew their lover moved to the town of Climate Catastrophe. The weather keeps getting more extreme by the year, and adjustments will need to be made to cope with that. Eventually I think those living in the central U.S. and some parts of the south are going to need to migrate north (due to the heat and intense storms more than the cold).

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I have a whole house, LP, auto switch over generator in the barn. It's been there for more than 20 years and the only time it runs is when I test it. Still, I'm glad I have it.

I'm surprised by all the frozen pipe damage in Texas. Apparently people there don't know how to drain their plumbing in advance of a freeze. Water damage from cracked pipes can nearly total a house. Building codes in Wisconsin require supply plumbing be gravity drainable, so you can cover most of your vulnerabilities by opening all your faucets and draining water from the low-point tap. Wisconsin cabin owners always have anti-freeze on the shelf for sink drains and toilets.

Even in Texas, I'd recommend learning about winterizing along with purchasing small generators and/or heaters.

Homes are like lovers. The best way to lose one is to fail to understand it.

Yea, one thing I noticed.. Up north things seem to be built more for the worst case scenario.. Like what was the coldest it ever got, then  go above that and you'll be at code..at least in cook county Illinois it was..

You wouldn't believe how many builders my father has followed up on and had to redo on homes that are only 10 years old.. one house they had to go through the whole thing and replace all the floor joists because they ran them in 2x4's.. Not a small stick home either..

When I walked on their kitchen floor  when I went to  drop off some paper work, before they got started.. OMG I don't know how they waited so long..  They had this wine cabinet that had wine glasses in the top part of it.. That's all I heard when I walked across the kitchen floor..

There is just a lot of people that got away with a lot of either washing each others hands or just not knowing what they were doing..

I don't know how they couldn't go after them either, because when you are liable for many things in the trades, you cannot outlive your liability..

Some things down here they are really strict on ,while other things it seems like, who gives a damn.. hehehehe

I'm just talking where we are.. I can't say what is what for the places they never did any jobs..

Edited February 18, 2021 by Ceka Cianci

[Rolig Loon]

There's hardly a place on Earth without some built-in natural disasters. I'm amazed by how relaxed we get in the face of familiar perils and how we exaggerate the risk of ones we only know from a distance.  A good friend from Virginia refused to ever visit me in the north central midwest because she was deathly afraid of tornados, for example. I have lived in this part of the world for over 40 years and never seen a tornado; the closest one, 20 years ago, was about 40 miles away.  Even here, tornados are so rare that they just aren't on my radar, I guess. (Of course, if we had a warning, I'd know to head for the basement bathroom. We know about safe places.)  On the other hand, I had a mild panic during a light tremor while I was dining in Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco one year, but the other diners didn't even seem to notice it.  "Ho, Hum.  A baby earthquake."

The nighttime temperatures here for the past week have been -10F to -20F, and this is the first day it's been above zero at dawn in about two weeks.  People here expect it at this time of year.  As the saying goes, "We don't have a cold weather problem.  You have a bad clothing problem."  That's unkind, but it just tells you that when cold is normal, you know how to live with it.  It gets scary when cold isn't normal -- like in Texas.  I can only imagine how my neighbors would react if we had a surprise hurricane or a volcano.

[Ceka Cianci]

35 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

There's hardly a place on Earth without some built-in natural disasters. I'm amazed by how relaxed we get in the face of familiar perils and how we exaggerate the risk of ones we only know from a distance.  A good friend from Virginia refused to ever visit me in the north central midwest because she was deathly afraid of tornados, for example. I have lived in this part of the world for over 40 years and never seen a tornado; the closest one, 20 years ago, was about 40 miles away.  Even here, tornados are so rare that they just aren't on my radar, I guess. (Of course, if we had a warning, I'd know to head for the basement bathroom. We know about safe places.)  On the other hand, I had a mild panic during a light tremor while I was dining in Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco one year, but the other diners didn't even seem to notice it.  "Ho, Hum.  A baby earthquake."

The nighttime temperatures here for the past week have been -10F to -20F, and this is the first day it's been above zero at dawn in about two weeks.  People here expect it at this time of year.  As the saying goes, "We don't have a cold weather problem.  You have a bad clothing problem."  That's unkind, but it just tells you that when cold is normal, you know how to live with it.  It gets scary when cold isn't normal -- like in Texas.  I can only imagine how my neighbors would react if we had a surprise hurricane or a volcano.

It's not really the cold that is the problem, well it is, but it's just one element that is combining with a few more.. It's the ice and snow that make it impossible to travel on what has to be traveled on.. We got wet mix sunday that froze solid  and coated everything 2 to 3 inches thick.. then snow on top of that and then dumped on again last night over 5 inches or more..

Like I said earlier, if it was on flat ground I would have took my jeep to work..But you can't find much of a flat stretch and if there is one, you have to go through  hills and curves and drop offs  to get to it..

I don't know how Texas is, but in Tennessee, you don't hit flat country until you get into west Tennessee..

If you go off the road around here, if the drop off didn't kill you, you may be there for awhile until someone calls in that you're missing.

Myself, I'm from up north and love the cold and not a fan of the heat at all.. The people down here start closing up the windows and doors, throwing their insulated Carharts on and breaking out their winter gear when it hits 50 degrees.. hehehe

I don't even start wearing a jacket until January most of the time.. If something is gonna happen like this kind of weather,, it's usually late December to February when it does..

I understand what you are getting at though.. the more north you go the colder it gets and the more you are used to it and ready for it..

Down here it gets cold too.. We get our teens and close to Zero.. That's cold for the south..  But It's really when you get those perfect combinations that meet up at the same time, that are what shut things down and cause so much chaos..

 

The ones I'm really upset with are the ones that knew this was coming  ahead of time and  they didn't ready the roads, like they would have two years ago the last time we got bad ice.. That time though was nothing like this stretch.. They named this storm.. hehehehe

I kept hearing Uri this and Uri that.. I was like, when was there a hurricane? 0o  it was this winter storm.. hehehe

 

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Rolig Loon said:

There's hardly a place on Earth without some built-in natural disasters. I'm amazed by how relaxed we get in the face of familiar perils and how we exaggerate the risk of ones we only know from a distance.

I can also be the reverse, where we underestimate the remote and overestimate the familiar.

I had a chat with an old friend yesterday:

He: "Maddy, are you going to get vaccinated?"
Me: "Yes, as soon as possible!"
He: "Aren't you worried about a reaction?"
Me: "Nope".
He: "My son's pastor got his first shot 10 days ago and hasn't fully recovered yet."
Me: "My best childhood friend was killed by a car that drove up on the sidewalk. I was in the hospital for days. I still walk on sidewalks. Meanwhile, nearly half a million Americans lost their ability to do that over the last year."

Risk assessment ain't humanity's strong suit.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Madelaine McMasters

[Rolig Loon]

I agree, Ceka. Some places,  like Tennessee, have the bad luck to be stuck between weather extremes. You get cold enough to have some winter weather but it's warm enough that you are likely to get ice and sleet,  which are really nasty.

Here,  we're usually cold enough that we get snow,  which you can just shovel off. We can get wicked drifts with the wind,  but the highway guys have behemoth plows that can eat through them and keep the major routes open. Farther south than Tennessee,  they don't usually get a lot of ice and they don't usually need plows. (Except in weird times like this.) You get the icky type of winter most years where you are. ☹

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Ceka Cianci said:

It's not really the cold that is the problem, well it is, but it's just one element that is combining with a few more.. It's the ice and snow that make it impossible to travel on what has to be traveled on.. We got wet mix sunday that froze solid  and coated everything 2 to 3 inches thick.. then snow on top of that and then dumped on again last night over 5 inches or more..

Like I said earlier, if it was on flat ground I would have took my jeep to work..But you can't find much of a flat stretch and if there is one, you have to go through  hills and curves and drop offs  to get to it..

I don't know how Texas is, but in Tennessee, you don't hit flat country until you get into west Tennessee..

If you go off the road around here, if the drop off didn't kill you, you may be there for awhile until someone calls in that you're missing.

Myself, I'm from up north and love the cold and not a fan of the heat at all.. The people down here start closing up the windows and doors, throwing their insulated Carharts on and breaking out their winter gear when it hits 50 degrees.. hehehe

I don't even start wearing a jacket until January most of the time.. If something is gonna happen like this kind of weather,, it's usually late December to February when it does..

I understand what you are getting at though.. the more north you go the colder it gets and the more you are used to it and ready for it..

Down here it gets cold too.. We get our teens and close to Zero.. That's cold for the south..  But It's really when you get those perfect combinations that meet up at the same time, that are what shut things down and cause so much chaos..

 

The ones I'm really upset with are the ones that knew this was coming  ahead of time and  they didn't ready the roads, like they would have two years ago the last time we got bad ice.. That time though was nothing like this stretch.. They named this storm.. hehehehe

I kept hearing Uri this and Uri that.. I was like, when was there a hurricane? 0o  it was this winter storm.. hehehe

 

 

 

It's not the snow that shuts things down in the south so much as the ice. People in the [deep] south are not used to snow or ice and certainly are not prepared to drive in or on either one. Mostly those who grew up in an environment that gets snow/ice every winter and moved to the south are the only ones brave enough to get out in it. True southerners are too damned stubborn to leave/move.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Silent Mistwalker

[Walelu Summerwind]

15 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Covid right now is the least of our problems down here in the south..at least from Tennessee to Texas anyways for this week..

This whole week has been crazy down here.. They can't give out vaccines and any food shelters have been closed due to the weather for those needing anything..

There are people with 4x4's forming groups and offering rides to essential workers I seen the other night on the news,  which is really nice to see..

Well honestly, I'm surprised they named the storm Uri instead of nick naming it after Valentines day, since that's the day it seemed to all start up..

Since Sunday it's been wet, then freezing cold with all the ice, black ice and snow mix.. Right now we're getting dumped on again with a big snow and more icy rain and wet mix and temperatures  not getting high enough to thaw anything until maybe Saturday at the earliest..

It's really wild, you could still sort of see the grass peaking through the ice the last few days, but you had to really stomp on it to make an imprint, if you didn't slip on your butt like I did my first try..

There was like 2 inches of solid ice covering all the vehicles today that we had sitting outside..We got them all cleaned off and started up..

If it was flat, I'd probably try to give it a go in my jeep to make it to work, but there are just too many curves and hilly roads and drop offs and it would take me forever and a day to get there, see an empty parking lot, then just have to turn around and come home..

Hardly any of the plants around town have been running very much at all.. I talked to some friends at some of the other plants and they haven't had enough people to show up to run anything..

There have been people without power since Monday from the power lines getting iced up and lines snapping from the weight. Some stuck in their cars stranded for 15 hours or more..

If you get stranded out here it may be awhile before anyone comes, especially in bad weather when nobody is going anywhere.

One guy around here froze to death in his car the other night.. More than likely from going to work not realizing what kind of weather was coming in and ended up unprepared and getting stranded and stuck for hours heading back home..

It's a sad shame to hear things like that..

This is about the worst I've seen it around here since I can remember..

If we were up north, it'd be just another winter storm where you get that first slide that breaks you in at the start of the season..Then it's like ,Winter driving experience engaged..That can happen on flat roads..

Getting in a slide around here and going off the road, it's a good chance you may be there for a good while..

I'm so ready to go back to work.. I've had more time off in this last years time, than I've had in my whole working life..

It would be one thing if it was like congress and all that time being breaks and vacation, but it's been more, held home than taking off.

That's hurting a lot of people living from pay check to pay check, coming off all this as well..

 

Ok I'm done.. I just had to get that all out of my system.. Everyone stay safe.

Ceka ❤️

(((warm hugs))) Ceka, 

Is it true that a lot of Texas’ energy comes from wind turbines and that the turbines froze? It’s a dam shame that Texan lives are being lost and you all are basically on your own.. all for the sake of unreliable “renewable” energy. I’m praying for Texas.. and the whole country.. We are all living in very uncertain times... and it’s not just the virus.

[Rolig Loon]

Reportedly,  about 10% of power in the Texas grid is from renewables, and some systems did freeze. But then,  so did a lot of natural gas lines,  which are needed for a much greater proportion of the power generation. The whole dang system failed. Not only that,  but Texas doesn't have systems in place to allow them to draw on power from neighboring states,  so they're on their own. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Rolig Loon

[Luna Bliss]

25 minutes ago, Walelu Summerwind said:

It’s a dam shame that Texan lives are being lost and you all are basically on your own.. all for the sake of unreliable “renewable” energy. I’m praying for Texas.. and the whole country..

I'm praying for you too. Delusional people need lots of help.

Climate Point: Republicans try to shift blame for Texas energy woes to renewables

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/02/17/climate-point-republicans-try-shift-blame-texas-energy-woes-renewables/6765325002/

Edited February 18, 2021 by Luna Bliss

[Ceka Cianci]

52 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

 

It's not the snow that shuts things down in the south so much as the ice. People in the [deep] south are not used to snow or ice and certainly are not prepared to drive in or on either one. Mostly those who grew up in an environment that gets snow/ice every winter and moved to the south are the only ones brave enough to get out in it. True southerners are too damned stubborn to leave/move.

Southerners will get out on the ice, the snow, the mud or whatever excuse they can find to put them trucks  to the test.. When they came up with the saying, Hold my beer, it was in reference to southerners and their 4x4's.. It had something to do with finding a black box on one of their 4x4's and the last thing recorded was, hold my beer.. hehehe

The thing that it is, is the terrain and the perfect mix coming together.. I don't care where you are from, you're not just jumping in your truck and just running the roads like it's up home.. The ones doing that are gonna be off the road..

Ice and black ice are two different kinds of ice.. ice will form on the road because either the road will freeze what's on the road or the cars smash the snow down, where black ice forms over everything from coming down building a layer over everything.. the whole outside is covered in ice..With black ice  when you go off the road you just keep  going.. hehehehe

Right now Under the snow everywhere it's all a sheet of 2 to 3 inches of ice.. From up north or  from down here nobody is getting confident on it and things gonna end up well.. hehehe

it's 4 wheel low weather..

I love getting to use my jeeps 4wheel low.. I don't even have to touch the pedal and it just goes on it's own.. I love my Jeep hehehe

 

[Luna Bliss]

9 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Texas doesn't have systems in place to allow them to draw on power from neighboring states,  so they're on their own. 

Yes...they want to be separate from federal government influence and so have no connection to the east and west power grids. A major city in southern Texas can connect to the east and west grids though, and is doing fine. Los Alamos, I think.

[Ceka Cianci]

15 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Reportedly,  about 10% of power in the Texas grid is from renewables, and some systems did freeze. But then,  so did a lot of natural gas lines,  which are needed for a much greater proportion of the power generation. The whole dang system failed. Not only that,  but Texas doesn't have systems in place to allow them to draw on power from neighboring states,  so they're on their own. 

I heard  something about that.. them not being part of the main grid and also, Getting kind of cheap when it came to preparing their lines for harsh conditions, kind of like what we are having now..

But that was just hearsay from someone getting in my ear earlier today, so who knows how credible  it is what they were telling me.. hehehe

Edited February 18, 2021 by Ceka Cianci

[Luna Bliss]

It's just another case of public officials overly-obsessed with freedom, or misunderstanding what freedom really is.

'An electrical island': Texas has dodged federal regulation for years by having its own power grid

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/17/texas-power-grid-why-state-has-its-own-operated-ercot/6782380002/

[Ceka Cianci]

32 minutes ago, Walelu Summerwind said:

(((warm hugs))) Ceka, 

Is it true that a lot of Texas’ energy comes from wind turbines and that the turbines froze? It’s a dam shame that Texan lives are being lost and you all are basically on your own.. all for the sake of unreliable “renewable” energy. I’m praying for Texas.. and the whole country.. We are all living in very uncertain times... and it’s not just the virus.

I'm not in Texas, I'm in Tennessee.. We're not really losing too much power where we got hit.. Our problem is the ice and everywhere being on the other side of a hill.. That and I found out today that whoever was in control of the towns budget thought money grew on tree's and ate up a bunch of the surplus on brand new p[police cars.. So that's probably why we didn't get any road preparation before the storm came.. That guy is gone but his aftermath  is living on..

We had a surplus and this guy ran right though it..

[Ceka Cianci]

4 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

It's just another case of public officials overly-obsessed with freedom, or misunderstanding what freedom really is.

'An electrical island': Texas has dodged federal regulation for years by having its own power grid

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/17/texas-power-grid-why-state-has-its-own-operated-ercot/6782380002/

At first I heard it was just Houston, but that might be because I mentioned Houston and the person I was talking to just jumped right into the details without adding the Texas part.. hehehe

[Luna Bliss]

When are we ever going to get out of this disinformation plague, causing suffering and even death for untold amounts of people.

[Madelaine McMasters]

38 minutes ago, Walelu Summerwind said:

(((warm hugs))) Ceka, 

Is it true that a lot of Texas’ energy comes from wind turbines and that the turbines froze? It’s a dam shame that Texan lives are being lost and you all are basically on your own.. all for the sake of unreliable “renewable” energy. I’m praying for Texas.. and the whole country.. We are all living in very uncertain times... and it’s not just the virus.

NPR did an interview with someone from ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) yesterday. He stated that there are expectations for performance of various parts of the power system over a range of weather conditions. The wind and solar components of that system are currently performing above expectation. The fossil portions (coal/oil/gas) are performing well below expectations.

The wind turbines that went offline were not winterized, and could have been made resilient for modest extra expenditure. The fossil plants and distribution infrastructure will require considerable expense to harden against severe cold.

Nobody expects wind and solar to completely replace fossil anytime soon, but green energy seems to have lived up to it's promise in Texas. It's the politicians who've ignored ample evidence of their need to adapt who bear the responsibility for this deadly fiasco.

[Mollymews]

2 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

Reportedly,  about 10% of power in the Texas grid is from renewables, and some systems did freeze. But then,  so did a lot of natural gas lines,  which are needed for a much greater proportion of the power generation. The whole dang system failed. Not only that,  but Texas doesn't have systems in place to allow them to draw on power from neighboring states,  so they're on their own. 

i have been reading up a bit on the Texas power system. Seems that power generation uses a JIT model driven largely by buy-sell contract pricing with a spot market to deal with surge demand

main problem going forward is that with this model there is not enough generation capacity to meet the surge demand in these extreme case. Even if all the generators were working and and all the lines were up and functioning. Seems there was an about 30MWH shortfall. So the early warning notifications of rolling blackouts.

is a going forward problem as nobody, other than the State itself or by State subsidy, is going to build/maintain generators and/or maintain a battery farm, which just sit there offline doing nothing until they might be needed in the extreme times. Either the Texas State does this, or Texas connects to the wider US grid. Either is a political issue. Not sure what the outcome will be. Mostly likely tho, given the current state legislature's aversion to US federal regulatory oversight then will be state subsidy I think for battery farms

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Southerners will get out on the ice, the snow, the mud or whatever excuse they can find to put them trucks  to the test.. When they came up with the saying, Hold my beer, it was in reference to southerners and their 4x4's.. It had something to do with finding a black box on one of their 4x4's and the last thing recorded was, hold my beer.. hehehe

The thing that it is, is the terrain and the perfect mix coming together.. I don't care where you are from, you're not just jumping in your truck and just running the roads like it's up home.. The ones doing that are gonna be off the road..

Ice and black ice are two different kinds of ice.. ice will form on the road because either the road will freeze what's on the road or the cars smash the snow down, where black ice forms over everything from coming down building a layer over everything.. the whole outside is covered in ice..With black ice  when you go off the road you just keep  going.. hehehehe

Right now Under the snow everywhere it's all a sheet of 2 to 3 inches of ice.. From up north or  from down here nobody is getting confident on it and things gonna end up well.. hehehe

it's 4 wheel low weather..

I love getting to use my jeeps 4wheel low.. I don't even have to touch the pedal and it just goes on it's own.. I love my Jeep hehehe

 

You're talking about country folk that don't live in town. I'm talking about the country folk that live in town. 🤭

There are those who still have to get out in it and work. My father was one of them, especially if a city main broke. Since the family company are the ones who laid most of the underground utilities in that town, we had the plans and all the files from when the work was done.

Where I lived is a lot further south than Tennessee. lol

[Walelu Summerwind]

4 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

I'm praying for you too. Delusional people need lots of help.

Climate Point: Republicans try to shift blame for Texas energy woes to renewables

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/02/17/climate-point-republicans-try-shift-blame-texas-energy-woes-renewables/6765325002/

Luna.. shame on you for implying that I am delusional. I told Ceka that I am praying for her and you spew hate just because I don't see my world the same way you see yours. This is what is wrong with America today. I don't participate in group think. I'm sure that my words will have no impact on you. I am sorry for people who feel the need to to lash out at anyone who doesn't go along with their narrative.. so sad.

[Arielle Popstar]

3 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

NPR did an interview with someone from ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) yesterday. He stated that there are expectations for performance of various parts of the power system over a range of weather conditions. The wind and solar components of that system are currently performing above expectation. The fossil portions (coal/oil/gas) are performing well below expectations.

The wind turbines that went offline were not winterized, and could have been made resilient for modest extra expenditure. The fossil plants and distribution infrastructure will require considerable expense to harden against severe cold.

Nobody expects wind and solar to completely replace fossil anytime soon, but green energy seems to have lived up to it's promise in Texas. It's the politicians who've ignored ample evidence of their need to adapt who bear the responsibility for this deadly fiasco.

Like the Quebec ice storm of 1998 there will no doubt be months if not years of blame and recriminations flying in all directions but was in the end nothing more then a "perfect" storm that overcame the design limits of the grid infrastructure. It is the people of Texas that are going to have to be ok with paying for power that incorporates the costs associated with it being able to produce sufficient electricity even in arctic temperatures when there there are cloudy skies and no wind for that once in a multi decade event. Retrofit winterizing of these power plants is not going to be cheap and with the bulk of government subsidies going to renewable energies, I doubt the coal and gas ones will be very motivated to even do so. The CEO of ERCOT mentioned 39% of the renewable sources went offline and that was aside from the low power outputs through the solar farms due to the cloudy skies. Perhaps they don't have very high expectations of the renewables to begin with to justify the comment that it was performing above expectations.