I hope that it doesn't happen until I get back from Dallas, but the conditions are getting right.
There is a cold front that has been lingering around Austin, dropping the temperature down to the freezing mark. Just before the cold front came through we had quite a bit of rain.
They are predicting some rain and sleet for the rest to show up later in the week.
I am heading up to Dallas tonight for some customer meetings tomorrow.
I am running about an hour behind schedule, so I definitely need to cut this post short and hit the road.
Entry from Ice Storm 2007.
Laterz
My iGoogle homepage says that is 99 out. However, it has to be even hotter out than that.
It is 77 in the kitchen right now, but that is also because Gina was using the oven earlier.
I had to run to the store to get some pasta shells so that Gina could finish making dinner. We also needed some Ice to I hit the 'Ice Shack', I don't know what else to call it. It is this little building, similar in size to those tiny espresso shacks, but without the clerk.
You walk up, insert your $1.75 for a 16 lb bag of ice. You get 20 lbs of ice if you have your own container to put it all in.
Anyway, I know this is Texas. SO not really whining, just reporting that Texas summer has come. I am pretty sure the last two days are the hottest we have had this summer.
Maybe I bitched about the rain just a little too much. I would love if it just poured for an hour right about now.
Laterz.
Yesterday it was very, very cold. We had a little bit of ice form on the deck and the driveway. I mean just a little bit.
This morning. That is a whole different story. I helped Gina scrape through about seemed like 1/8 of an inch of ice, probably closer to 1/16. But needless to say a solid coating of ice on her car. There are icicles hanging from the roof.
Gina wanted to get some Starbucks, I was going along to get some paper towels and what not from Randall's.
The strip mall was mostly closed. A bunch of the signs read as follows "Closed for the remainder of the night due to the weather." or "Don't blame us, blame the weatherman." The city does seem to be pretty much shutdown. The Austin office was told to work from home.
There is a strange noise in the house, I think it has something to do with the fact that two of the outside water spigots are frozen up.
I am hoping that it won't lead to a pipe burst. I have opened up the spigots in hopes that as the house warms up, and hopefully the weather outside warms up as well it will start flowing again.
I am probably just worrying about it too much.
Anyway, it is starting to snow here.
I best go and get warmer pullover to wear.
Laterz.
Just doesn't have the same jolly ring to it as "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow." now does it?
Today I am working from home, because the city has gone insane and and everyone on TV is telling us to stay home. I am glad that I have this nice new desk to work at.
I tried to convince Gina to work from home too. But she was determined to make it into the office as she has customers coming into town this week and she scheduled all sorts of phone calls that she must complete today. I think she doesn't like letting people hear the bird in the background. Who's name is Jasper, in case anyone was wondering. He is very loud. I sometimes call him the LBB, Little Birdy Bastard, my small tribute to the ODB, Old Dirty Bastard, who has left us and will no longer grace us with his talented rap artistry.
Anyway. She says that she will be coming home early. I can only hope so, as it is supposed to get worse before it gets better.
Of course that also just kind of sucks. Because I had really wanted to run to IKEA today to get the last piece of my desk that I think I just absolutely must have. The CPU holder thing. I forget the name for it, but it is basically a metal shelf that hangs off the metal frame underneath the desk here and it holds the computer. I think it will be quite nice. Also, my computer is a bit noisy when it is sitting up at eye level, like it is now. I have like 3 fans in it to keep it cool and well they make some noise. Notably I bought some quieter fans, but still fans are fans and they make noise.
Maybe I will do a heat pipe, water based cooling one next computer.
Well I have a few projects that I need to complete on schedule this week. So I best get to it.
Back to the grind.
Laterz.
Monday, January 15. 2007
Took me a few tries to come up with a header.
I was afraid "I think we are all gonna die!" was too scary.
There is a "Winter Weather Advisory" in effect for central Texas. This might have been upgraded to an "Ice Storm Warning" by now for Williamson county.
The TV news said we should have 3 days of food and water in the house. This type of advice apparently stirred quite the frenzy at the grocery stores. Gina and I went to HEB to pickup stuff for dinner (we had not yet heard the 3 days of food and water advice on TV yet). I knew a storm was coming but this was ridiculous.
So where did the headline come from? It comes from the fact that the meat section @ HEB had a big sign that had been put together quickly to say "SOLD OUT OF GROUND BEEF. NO MORE GROUND BEEF. SOLD OUT."
Ummm, yeah. I have never seen any store sold out of ground beef. I have seen them sold out of turkeys or good steaks that are on sale, but never ground beef.
What the fsck? Mind you the water section had PLENTY of water left. But man do people think the ground beef will be useful in an ice storm.
It might also be that it was on sale for $1.99/lb. But it wasn't the only thing going for broke. The whole meat section was picked over. They were even running low on brisket. The were sold out of Smokey Links. They were pretty much out of bread too.
From what the checkout clerk told us the store was a mad house right up until we got there. That all the lanes were open and it was taking up to 30 minutes to get through the line.
I mean, in all my years living in Michigan I don't remember people freaking out like that over an ice storm. I mean, sure they happen here once a year, at the very most. But good god. Buy some soup, some candles, some wood and some batteries for the flashlights and some extra jugs of water.
Do not buy all the ground beef in the store.
Well I really need to get to bed.
Laterz.
