Early this week, all the news stations started talking about an "arctic blast" and "winter weather" and doing their normal craziness that you get used to here in Texas when the temperatures dip and there is the chance of a stray snowflake. I really didn't pay a ton of attention because 9 times out of 10 it seems they are wrong and we might get a couple of flurries but nothing sticks and there are no problems. Well, this was that one time out of 10 that they actually got it right and it got very cold and very icy!
Day 1 (Tuesday), there was a certain novelty to the cold weather, the school closings, and the coating of white on everything. It was great to be able to shut off my alarm clock and crawl into bed for a couple more hours. Ryan and I worked from home - Ryan the whole day and me for half the day, so I could keep Ryley entertained. I have to say - I thoroughly enjoyed being home with my family and moving at a little bit slower pace.
Day 2 (Wednesday) started off okay - the roads really hadn't changed and the schools were closed, so we decided to stay home again. Interestingly, our local news started talking about rolling blackouts to try to control energy demand - they didn't sound so bad - 10 to 45 minutes, so when our power went off around 7:00 I didn't think much of it. Problem was, it didn't come back on for more than about a minute at a time for over 3 hours.
It's amazing how cold your house can get in that amount of time when the temp outside is in the teens. We finally resorted to starting a fire using an old firelog we found in the garage. I swear we probably haven't used our fireplace more than a handful of times since we've moved into this house over 6 years ago! The silver lining to all this is that Ryan, Ryley and I got to enjoy each other's company without any of the usual distractions - it was so nice to just pile into our bed and hang out for a couple hours.
As the day went on, we decided we wanted to check out the roads because we could use a few things from the store, in particular some firelogs, since we'd just discovered how nice it is to have a fire in the fireplace. And it was good to just get out of the house for a little bit. It took two different stores, but we did actually find some more fire logs - here's a pic to prove it!
Day 3 (Today - Thursday) has been pretty much the same as Tuesday and Wednesday. Still hanging out here at home, enjoying the slower pace of things. I actually got in a full day's work - maybe I could do this work from home thing from time to time... And we enjoyed another fire. By this evening, I think Ryan was getting tired of being cooped up inside, so he insisted on grilling our pork chops for dinner outside. While wearing shorts. On our icy patio. Yes, he's crazy. But dinner was great!
I really am hoping that things do thaw out soon and we can get back to our "normal" routine in the next few days. But, I have to admit I've loved the time spent with Ryan and Ryley - sometimes these unexpected inconveniences turn out to be blessings if you allow them to!
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