Thursday, February 18, 2021
Lights Out
So, there’s been a little winter weather to hit the Deep South. We, southerners, like to think of ourselves as a hardy people. A resourceful group who can manage just about anything. We can deal with ornery water moccasins and swarms of mosquitos that could be mistaken for hummingbirds. We are quite proficient in coping with hurricanes with 150 mph winds. We can hunt, garden, skin deer, and put up vegetables. We are built to survive 90% humidity with a heat index of 105. (well, most of us are) We know a little something about what to do when tornadoes are coming. We can cook up some good eatin’ and catch a mess of catfish and help your mama with a flat tire on the side of the road, but when God was putting us together, He just didn’t see the point of equipping us with the ability to deal with ice. Maybe because He knew we wouldn’t get much use out of it. Whatever it is, it’s just not our thing and that’s ok. Nobody can be good at everything.
We’d been seeing this foreboding forecast several days out, but we, southerners, don’t tend to get too worked up about these winter weather forecasts because they usually end up being a big nothing. Southern school children have spent far too many “snow days” at home playing in the brown grass. No, we wait until a day or two before the anticipated event to make preparations. At that point, if they’re still insistent that it’s going to be snowy or icy, then we reckon we should listen. This is the point when everyone in town panics and goes to the grocery store at the very same time to buy bread, milk, water, peanut butter, ham, cheese, hot dogs, batteries, and Little Debbie’s. I, myself, made a pot of soup, some pimento cheese, and sloppy joe meat because I prefer to eat a tad higher on the hog in weather emergencies and, really, we’re just fancy people like that. We planned to use the grill and propane cooker to heat things up if needed.
Well, my little Mama had a big limb knock a live power line down onto the top of her house after the first signs of icing. Thank the good Lord for her precious neighbors. My brother went and rescued her and brought her here, where we wanted her in the first place. I’d begged her to come stay here in anticipation of the bad weather, but she wouldn’t comply- insisting she’d be just fine. I know they have books on how to deal with disobedient children, but I wonder if there are any that speak on disobedient parents because I’m going to need one or two of those.
And about the time the three of us were eating our nice dinner here, our power went out and stayed out about 20 hours including the 11 degree night, which might as well have been -30. Once it gets below 32, southerners lose their ability to discern degrees of cold. All I know is that when it’s 11 degrees and the heat is out, the bed is the only place to find any warmth or solace. Although- it was a toss up whether Davis and I missed the heat or our sleep machine more. We don’t do well with sleeping in silence. At one point, Ruby looked over at us like she was annoyed- wondering which one had forgotten to pay the power bill.
We got power back in time for a hot lunch, the next day, and avoided the second wave of power outages when round two of bad weather came through last night, so we’re awfully grateful for that. There are still a lot of people without power after our bizarre thunder snow/freezing rain/sleet/rain with thunder weather event. Our pine trees don’t hold up well in the ice and they just can’t resist falling on a power line any chance they get. There are so many power trucks from all over the country working to help get us back to normal. I don’t know what they’re paying them down there at the power company, but people who climb up a pole in a windy 11 degrees to tinker with electricity should be well-compensated. Right now, there is no one more welcomed or appreciated around here than them.
We need to pray for the Texans, who really seem to be having a terrible time. I’m sure there are other places, too. We may not know how to drive in snow or ice in the South and we may find ourselves ill-prepared for the havoc it brings. Sure, we wait until the last minute to gather our supplies. Yeah, we slip and slide and look like we don’t know what we’re doing, but there’s one thing we do better than anything- we’re awfully good at helping our fellow man. So many people helping each other by doing whatever they can do during all of this. Cutting up trees, pulling cars out of ditches, inviting cold neighbors to sleep by a fireplace, taking food to stranded truckers on the interstate, checking on the elderly. We may not do cold very well and we’re sure not pretty trying, but we can love our neighbors with the best of them and we’re just beautiful when we’re doing that.
Photo of our neighborhood lake taken by my sweet neighbor, Jennifer
Everybody stay safe and warm!
Spring is coming!
JONI
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