In Seattle people make fun of shutting down for an inch, but it’s so hilly here, and so often close to freezing causing ice...

Things I will do for a chance to get a COVID vaccine: wake up at 430am, drive an hour round trip to drop off my dog at a friend’s, to show up to volunteer at 615am. Fingers crossed.

There have been a number of times we lost power for several days, or more, but it was hot and sticky, not freezing. Big difference.

Frozen pipes, and frozen people. Very scary.

A mayor in Texas posted a rather, um, stringent message about the people whining about not having heat or electricity. After the responses, he's resigned.

We're still okay here this morning. No power loss, no new frozen pipes.

I honestly don't know what I would do if the power went out for days, even here.

Yeah, I lost power for a few days one time, in the summer, when I was going to the office all day, and I hated it! And literally all it was was inconvenient and a little hot.

In a related story, D.C. is one of those places that gets snow but handles it badly (there's a running joke about THE snow plow). Often really badly, One winter, This Old House was working on a house in D.C. It snowed ... less than an inch and the city shut down. The people filming, hardy Bostonians, thought it was pretty funny - in Boston, seemingly, this would barely be noticed.

But that's because we are prepared! At this point in the winter, all of the roads and sidewalks are white with salt, and every truck has a plow on it. Our houses are insulated! We own snowboots! etc.

Texas wasn't prepared. One of the more compassionate comments I saw was about what if it was 120 in Minnesota in the summer?

I still remember when we moved from Louisville to northern New Jersey and it snowed for the first time. In Louisville, there was almost now snow - there were photos of me bundled to the eyebrows groveling in about half an inch of snow trying to get enough for a snow ball. Then, the first snow - 11 inches. My mother assumed we'd be snowed in until the spring thaw and kind of panicked.

Ooh, good luck, meara! Pulling for you.

I texted my aunt in Vienna, VA that we were coming home early because I knew she'd be worried but also assume we would leave early but also still be worried. I was correct on all counts, heh.

We were out of power for 5 days after an ice storm when we lived in NC. What we did during that time was conceive a child, so. It did keep us relatively warm.

In Maine when I was a kid the power lines for the whole county were down for days once, but the majority of people there have wood stoves. I remember cooking canned soup on the wood stove.

This story from Seattle has been getting a ton of media attention, which is hilarious to me because I've known Fran Goldman my entire life (she was a close friend of my grandmother and has a cabin down the beach from my family up in Canada) and literally NOBODY who knows her was surprised that she chose to walk 6 miles in the snow for a Covid vaccine. Like, OF COURSE she did, how else was she supposed to get there? 3 miles each way? Pfft.

Gosh I love no-nonsense old ladies. It’s the goal of my life to be one - getting closer every day!