2023-2024 Winter Weather

[YGIFS 19449]

2 minutes ago, boilerhorn said:

Many of those dipshits are now screaming at the clouds that their kids are delayed.  So they'll be part of the cluster...

True.  At least the precip accumulation won’t be significant.  When I hear the first Karen tomorrow morning complain to me that she’s running late for work as I try and get her kids out safely and Into the warm school, I may be punching a bitch.  Our bus drivers and teachers don’t make these choices.
 Fuck though, I gotta remember to pack my gloves.  

[Homercles 10205]

Officially official for RRISD.  Gonna go enjoy the fireworks on the Facebook comments now that it’s fully out there. 

[boilerhorn 1375]

15 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

True.  At least the precip accumulation won’t be significant.  When I hear the first Karen tomorrow morning complain to me that she’s running late for work as I try and get her kids out safely and Into the warm school, I may be punching a bitch.  Our bus drivers and teachers don’t make these choices.
 Fuck though, I gotta remember to pack my gloves.  

BTW - laughing at the "punch a bitch" comment, not the other stuff.  One of my daughters (no pics) teaches at RR High School.  Another is a student teacher in AISD.  Yes, do not forget the gloves...

[InkaUtexas 25875]

Well did take a loss and pissed. Breaker blew on my outdoor outlet that powers the pond pump and I put in a heater. It is far back in the yard and did not check it. Frozen solid and the fish are now fishicles. Wife is pissed since she loved to sit out next to it. I insulated around the outlet but guess not enough.

Things to learn. RIP Goldfish.

[Gatorubet 30189]

5 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Well did take a loss and pissed. Breaker blew on my outdoor outlet that powers the pond pump and I put in a heater. It is far back in the yard and did not check it. Frozen solid and the fish are now fishicles. Wife is pissed since she loved to sit out next to it. I insulated around the outlet but guess not enough.

Things to learn. RIP Goldfish.

Humble brag about the abundant frozen seafood noted. 

[InkaUtexas 25875]

Just now, Gatorubet said:

Humble brag about the abundant frozen seafood noted. 

They will end up in the garden ala Native American fertilizer approach.

[Brisketexan 105083]

Well did take a loss and pissed. Breaker blew on my outdoor outlet that powers the pond pump and I put in a heater. It is far back in the yard and did not check it. Frozen solid and the fish are now fishicles. Wife is pissed since she loved to sit out next to it. I insulated around the outlet but guess not enough.
Things to learn. RIP Goldfish.

Befriend a carnie, you’ll end up with a crapload of new goldfish.

[InkaUtexas 25875]

Just now, Brisketexan said:

Befriend a carnie, you’ll end up with a crapload of new goldfish.

[FORTY NINE TO ZERO 2652]

galveston just canceled school.  this unexpected rain screwed everything up down here 

[texasdago 7569]

3 hours ago, South Austin said:

You could work those math problems with them, Super Dad.

But I want him to get the math problems right

[D_Goose 489]

If it’s now the rule that schools close for this type of situation, why not close them when it’s incredibly rainy too? Can be just as dangerous, if not more, than it will be tomorrow.

[Willfully Horn 8002]

15 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

 Wife is pissed 

She’s just being koi, Roy; she needs you to comfort her in her grief. 

[Deej 76756]

1 hour ago, Fastbreak said:

eat heavily sauced Earl Campbell brisket tacos and hope for the best….

Prayers for your fellow passengers. 

[Born to Run 6569]

One more time.

Precip over for CenTex, as expected not a big deal. Weather services did really good on this event, which is not easy.

Travel E of U.S. 77 today dicey - because icy. Take care.

Finally, a little "glad I'm not that guy" satisfaction by relative position comment.  Yesterday Austin had about 174 customers without power max in the day.

171 of them were my neighborhood.

Power went out about 9:45 a.m. Sunday. After the usual AE claptrap on their outage site, and a seeming update (2 hours est. restore, which was goalpost-moved about 6 times), they extended the estimated fix out to midnight (from about noon when they gave us that one). Missus and i said skrew that, we hopped on over to a nice hotel in Lakeway for the evening - good decision.  Then we read a cryptic share posted by our Bee Cave Mayor (Bee Cave has one and it's not (quite) Gomer Pyle or Helen Crump). She was sharing blamespeak by AE, stuff like "when the developer put this in he did blah blah.." and tech speak like "we need to have a loop return to allow multiple access to the location"  - sounded more like a sex ed talk on fertilization than electric stuff. But what got us was this part: "We have yet to determine the actual location of the break (although somehow they seemed to know enough to blame it on "someone digging" - yet no name, location, or purpose given. Ni-i-i-ce deflection). So "after 4 hours we have no idea what happened or where to try and find the problem." Beautiful. The days before, I spent some time prepping the well as usual with space heater and a few lights, always works. But now there was no power to it - would it be pointless? That was about my only worry, the rest I said we'd deal with if/when. But we were not gonna sit in a cold house staring at dying phones.  Eventually they gave "good news" on the outage app - our power would return by 7:30 p.m. Sure enough, neighbors reported power at about that time - followed by a flickering over the next hour - followed by power going out - again. Oops. No problem, you guys are pros. Apparently acc. to neighbor texts, power finally restored w/o flickering 1:30 a.m. We returned home from a great relaxing stay by about 10:30 this a.m. House warm water flowing(!) except for final stop (bathroom faucets). I opened cabinets and expect it to thaw, keeping an eye out for problems. But we have water! 

3 ice/major cold event, 3 power fails. Neighborhood is pissed. We're going to go to the mayor with pitchforks and tell her to get someone from AE out here to do a damn assessment of the infrastructure. If the neighborhood wiring is akin to the Douglas phone-on-the-pole on Green Acres, then we want to know so we can outlay to fix it. "The way it was done 50 years ago" is complete bullshit. AE ran a Usain Bolt dash out here in the 70's to claim electric here with Pedernales in the area. So now, you bastiges fix it. Yeah, like that'll happen. The '21 storm I can sort of understand (though we found out our outage was due to a transformer blow and power would have remained on otherwise). The '23 Ice Dump - again a piece of infrastructure went kerplunk and we were without for 24+ hours. This one? Proud to say that in the vast, great expanse of the Greater Austin Metroplex, one neighborhood - one tiny, lil' group of settlements - mine - was out - the ONLY group outage all day. We're gonna do some stuff and stuff to get some answers. Not cool. 

Most of the time, the fear and paranoia preceding one of these events is regrettable if not funny (though after '21 peoples' anxieties can certainly be more understood). But apparently in our enclave, if you get below 30°, those scenarios are real. This isn't a destitute area and we want answers - the authorities say they'll give them to us after this - but of course we'll see. But if it's time to upgrade something, then DO IT. 

I do have a 15K big honking generator that will easily power the entire house if needed. So why didn't I set it up? Good question but long answer. However next time I'll probably drag the SOB out and get it ready if needed. With this event, even with our recent history, I couldn't conceive of losing power - ERCOT had a lot, there was NO precip (at least power-killing kind) in this forecast, zip. I thought no problem. Wrong [Trump meme].

Half-confidently expect power to hold, if not we'll motor it to the hotel for another night. So much better.

So yeah, you weren't "that guy."

See ya at the next weather disaster - whether real or overblown. Stay cool.

TLDR

Spanish oaks?

[gsoda3 3251]

Just got unofficial word through someone who would know that RRISD is canceled Tuesday and a 2-hour delay on Wednesday.  At least that’s the latest word until they announce.  Expect Austin the same.  
 
Every fucking year now. 

This.  My wife works for someone at District who is in the know, and apparently they were all waffling the past hour…so guess they changed their mind recently to do late start.  I’d be surprised if RRISD cancels while all surrounding are just a late start.  Who the fuck knows. 

Does your wife work for a magic 8 ball?

[butthurt 1522]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Befriend a carnie, you’ll end up with a carpload of new goldfish.

fify

Edited January 16 by butthurt

[troph 24781]

Lake Travis ISD delayed 2 hours too. 

[The Ace of Aces 5175]

Dumb question amnesty request: why do Texas schools not just go to online classes for the day? Snow days here in Pennsylvania no longer exist. If there is 6”+ snow and schools are closed, it’s online instruction instead of canceling. 

Covid made the infrastructure set up for everyone. 

[YGIFS 19449]

3 minutes ago, The Ace of Aces said:

Dumb question amnesty request: why do Texas schools not just go to online classes for the day? Snow days here in Pennsylvania no longer exist. If there is 6”+ snow and schools are closed, it’s online instruction instead of canceling. 

Covid made the infrastructure set up for everyone. 

Mainly so a huge portion of children in our state can have a hot meal or two.  But we ain't taking no commie welfare bullshit!  

[InkaUtexas 25875]

Either way most kids are not showing up. When talking to a teacher friend today he said if they have school, even late start, my classes will be half full. He teaches HS so not the same as littles.

And online during COVID did not do that great. Shit, how many of the kids broke/lost/traded for weed their school issued computers? I do not know, my daughter did not qualify for one, she had her own equipment. But a lot did not. Hard to learn on your google phone.

[hookemATL 11707]

6 minutes ago, The Ace of Aces said:

Dumb question amnesty request: why do Texas schools not just go to online classes for the day? Snow days here in Pennsylvania no longer exist. If there is 6”+ snow and schools are closed, it’s online instruction instead of canceling. 

Covid made the infrastructure set up for everyone. 

Lolz the state could give a wet weasel fuck about any real book learnin’. 

[YGIFS 19449]

Sometimes I think ERCOT and extreme winter weather becoming the norm in Texas is an elaborate ruse by our state to have a giant book burning to stay warm like in "The Day After Tomorrow."  

Dennis Quaid could host! 

[The Ace of Aces 5175]

5 minutes ago, hookemATL said:

Lolz the state could give a wet weasel fuck about any real book learnin’. 

Fair, I temporarily forgot why I left Texas in 2005 and forgot it’s 10000000x worse now. 

[HornOnTheBayou 8919]

47 minutes ago, The Ace of Aces said:

Dumb question amnesty request: why do Texas schools not just go to online classes for the day? Snow days here in Pennsylvania no longer exist. If there is 6”+ snow and schools are closed, it’s online instruction instead of canceling. 

Covid made the infrastructure set up for everyone. 

Good answers so far. But long story short, TEA does not count virtual days as school days. So you can't count a student absent, you can't hold them accountable for doing that day's work, and the minutes would have to be made up at some other point during the school year.

[Fastbreak 3984]

8 hours, 10 beers, $140 bar tab. I have finally left AUS.

[YGIFS 19449]

1 minute ago, Fastbreak said:

8 hours, 10 beers, $140 bar tab. I have finally left AUS.

I probably wouldn't announce that to the passengers from the cockpit, but you do you brutha...

[InkaUtexas 25875]

Sucks for the person who has the aisle seat  

[Anastasis 23464]

12 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

I probably wouldn't announce that to the passengers from the cockpit, but you do you brutha...

$15/hr at airport bar shouldn’t get you in the pen. I thought this was America. 

[jimmyjazz 45893]

31 minutes ago, Fastbreak said:

8 hours, 10 beers, $140 bar tab. I have finally left AUS.

Dang.  Did they pour you into your seat?  (Yeah, I know, surly lightweight, yada yada yada)

[YGIFS 19449]

When traveling by air with family, a weather delay is the fucking worst.  

When traveling back in my no-kids days, a weather delay at the airport led to some pretty fun stories.  

Few years ago, flying home from Denver for work and there was some shitty weather.  I'm minding my own at the bar getting lunch and a drink.  Two guys next to me are chatting about running outta money to keep drinking at those prices.  Dude at the end of the bar goes, "You can just go buy a bottle at the duty free shop for what it costs you to buy 2 or 3 drinks here."  Bartender says, "Yeah, but you have to have an international ticket to buy anything in there."  Guy tells the two young guys, "Take this."  Hands 'em a boarding pass t to somewhere in Canada so they go off and buy a liter of booze and just make the drinks there at the table.  I have no idea how the on-premise rules work at an international airport, but it was funny to watch in real time.  The weird thing is I don't remember seeing them give him his boarding pass back.  Would be the ultimate, "Uh yeah honey, I fucked up" story if you missed your flight home because you temporarily donated your boarding pass to some poor college kids looking to get fucked up at 10am in Denver.  /csb

[gsoda3 3251]

Dumb question amnesty request: why do Texas schools not just go to online classes for the day? Snow days here in Pennsylvania no longer exist. If there is 6”+ snow and schools are closed, it’s online instruction instead of canceling. 
Covid made the infrastructure set up for everyone. 

Along with the other reasons listed, it's not just a flip of the switch to transition to online. Teachers have to upload work and teaching materials to whatever website the school district is using, students have to be told how to log on from their Chromebooks, some students don't carry them home everyday, some students don't have high speed wifi... It's a logistical mess that's not worth it for a day or even a few days.

[YGIFS 19449]

Good points.  For anything less than one full school week, it's just a logistical mess.  And we forget on a site with the demography of ours how many kids are in rural/exurban districts with shitty to none wi-fi.  And even if you compensate for that, there's a real power outage issue looming over many folks.  Most teachers and administrators would still rise to the challenge and get stuff "online-friendly" and updated and uploaded and monitor progress and engage the students virtually as they did during lockdown/quarantine.  But given how TEA and our State runs budgets and grading schools, it's just better overall to suck it up for a day or two and make it up down the road if need be.  

As fate would have it, I got my usual Monday email from our youngest's pre-K (4s & 5s) teacher about this week's lesson plan.  They're learning about the weather.  And the teacher put a cute little dig at the end for the parents after "we'll talk about snow and clouds and seasons, etc."  She put in the footer, "And by the end of the week, our little ones can teach our power grid that sometimes January is brrrrr cold and sometimes August is hot."  She's awesome.  

[ballrific 215]

Night Shift check in…sputnik coffee stouts have been crushed. I do NOT have a climate controlled shed around my pool equipment but did just go and throw a blanket around it. Still running 24/7, so not worried about frozen pipes but a cracked filter sucks. Had it happen in one of the atx icefucks around 2012ish…single digits wears on those filter tanks. Also reporting it’s still burn your face fucking cold as I try to chase one of our cats to the garage.

[atomheartbevo 89630]

8 minutes ago, ballrific said:

Night Shift check in…

[InkaUtexas 25875]

17 minutes ago, ballrific said:

Night Shift check in…sputnik coffee stouts have been crushed. I do NOT have a climate controlled shed around my pool equipment but did just go and throw a blanket around it. Still running 24/7, so not worried about frozen pipes but a cracked filter sucks. Had it happen in one of the atx icefucks around 2012ish…single digits wears on those filter tanks. Also reporting it’s still burn your face fucking cold as I try to chase one of our cats to the garage.

Not alone Sir. Still have a few more beers left and the client is two continents away and thinks we are all dead and have no interwebz.

[YGIFS 19449]

Sorry to hear about your passing.  
 

went out to move trash bins and check on faucets.  Not much wind or humidity which is good.  But fuck it’s cold.  Daughter was asking me at bedtime about growing up in weather like this for months on end in Chicago.  And I was telling her about how we prepped for it all a little different and shoveling and all that.  And I told her about after my dad left, I was in charge of shoveling all the snow around our driveway and doors.  And she asked about blizzards and I told her some stories.  And then she asked a really good question.  “If there was three feet of snow outside your doors, how did you open the door to shovel it?”  I’m still stumped.  I know we had multiple foot accumulations most winters, but I don’t remember how the hell I moved the snow out of the way.  And now I’m freaking out like I might still be trapped in my childhood home and this is all a simulation.  

[InkaUtexas 25875]

So it is your fault.....

[YGIFS 19449]

It’s like a bad version of that Saint Elsewhere finale.  But it’s not a snow globe with a hospital inside.  It’s a real sized house surrounded by snow.  And I’m not autistic.  I’m just an asshole.  

[Jersey Man10 3528]

It’s 60 degrees in my bedroom with a space heater.

[gsoda3 3251]

Sorry to hear about your passing.  
 
went out to move trash bins and check on faucets.  Not much wind or humidity which is good.  But fuck it’s cold.  Daughter was asking me at bedtime about growing up in weather like this for months on end in Chicago.  And I was telling her about how we prepped for it all a little different and shoveling and all that.  And I told her about after my dad left, I was in charge of shoveling all the snow around our driveway and doors.  And she asked about blizzards and I told her some stories.  And then she asked a really good question.  “If there was three feet of snow outside your doors, how did you open the door to shovel it?”  I’m still stumped.  I know we had multiple foot accumulations most winters, but I don’t remember how the hell I moved the snow out of the way.  And now I’m freaking out like I might still be trapped in my childhood home and this is all a simulation.  

Your front door swung out?

[Homercles 10205]

[YGIFS 19449]

1 hour ago, gsoda3 said:

1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

Sorry to hear about your passing.  
 
went out to move trash bins and check on faucets.  Not much wind or humidity which is good.  But fuck it’s cold.  Daughter was asking me at bedtime about growing up in weather like this for months on end in Chicago.  And I was telling her about how we prepped for it all a little different and shoveling and all that.  And I told her about after my dad left, I was in charge of shoveling all the snow around our driveway and doors.  And she asked about blizzards and I told her some stories.  And then she asked a really good question.  “If there was three feet of snow outside your doors, how did you open the door to shovel it?”  I’m still stumped.  I know we had multiple foot accumulations most winters, but I don’t remember how the hell I moved the snow out of the way.  And now I’m freaking out like I might still be trapped in my childhood home and this is all a simulation.  

Your front door swung out?

Outswing storm doors, in addition to the usual wooden front door, are common in very cold climates with certain foyer configurations like we had.  You don’t see them in Texas because of the climate here just makes them an annoyance.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen one here at someone’s home except maybe in the far reaches of the panhandle.

 But we had a covered patio where I kept the shovel so I’d slide that door open and March through the snow around front and dig out the front door  and driveway so mom could get to work and my sister could get to the bus.  I’d walk back around, take off my snow gear, change for school, take the dog out, and get my bike out from under the cover and off to school hoping the roads were all plowed and street lights were still on.  Years later when I was old enough to drive, I’d do the same thing but had to warm my car up for 15+ minutes in the driveway while doing all this so it would run properly.  Just how we lived for 4+ months a year. 
But I’ve never prepped more  and seen a bigger shitshow than I did in Austin 2021. 

Edited January 16 by YGIFS

[InkaUtexas 25875]

Don't forget your mittens in the AM.

[YGIFS 19449]

I was gonna wear these fingerless gloves that my friend left here.  He’s the bad boy of gynecology.  

[InkaUtexas 25875]

5 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

I was gonna wear these fingerless gloves that my friend left here.  He’s the bad boy of gynecology.  

Hey man, no one judges on the Surl.

Are they ribbed for your pleasure?

[InkaUtexas 25875]

Night crew. Still cold as shit out there.

[3adays 454]

Dripping Springs ISD now closed to “water issues” all across the district. 

[Bevo&Pevo 5122]

Made the drive from Zapata Co to Hardin Co. yesterday, saw no less than 8 wrecks.  Watched 2 po' mofo's spin out right in front of me and pinball off the median.  After we got home, checked Houston Transtar and they closed 59 in the Sugarland area, so we just made it by.  Big crash in Liberty, managed to squeeze by that one.  By the time we got home I was ready for a double and hot shower.  Stay safe ya'll. 

Current temp here is 22F.

Edited January 16 by Bevo&Pevo

[Pimphand 5734]

17 hours ago, txduck87 said:

 

[Pimphand 5734]

4 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Sorry to hear about your passing.  
 

went out to move trash bins and check on faucets.  Not much wind or humidity which is good.  But fuck it’s cold.  Daughter was asking me at bedtime about growing up in weather like this for months on end in Chicago.  And I was telling her about how we prepped for it all a little different and shoveling and all that.  And I told her about after my dad left, I was in charge of shoveling all the snow around our driveway and doors.  And she asked about blizzards and I told her some stories.  And then she asked a really good question.  “If there was three feet of snow outside your doors, how did you open the door to shovel it?”  I’m still stumped.  I know we had multiple foot accumulations most winters, but I don’t remember how the hell I moved the snow out of the way.  And now I’m freaking out like I might still be trapped in my childhood home and this is all a simulation.