Hi, guys! Just a quick update to let you know how the story of Snowpocolips Texas ends at 'Chez Ketay'.

What a week is a serious understatement! 5 days without power or water. The roads were too icy and dangerous to drive on and everything was closed, so nowhere to go anyway. Oy! Layer on loss of cell and internet service. It made it all the more of an adventure.

3am Thursday morning, I was woken by ice pelting the windows. By 5am it was snowing and didn't stop until 9pm and an additional 6" of snow later. One snow storm in San Antonio in the winter is rare. Two - it just doesn't happen - until it does! Power returned late Friday although we were still under boil water orders - for those who had water at all. Loved the city leadership telling everybody to boil water when most didn't have the means to do so. Cearly made the point that there is a huge differrence between somebody being a city official and a leader.

By Friday afternoon, the sun was out, the roads had cleared and snow in the sunlight had all melted. We were able to go home. The house was still chilly, but much warmer than the 29 it had dropped to. Thankfully, my husband is from Montana and used to winter camping. He and my daughter carefully monitored pipes to make sure nothing burst. We had a fridge and two freezers to empty. Everything was lost. The freezer contents are gone. The fridge and freezers are now clean. That's one way to make sure it gets done - just not what I really wanted to do that minute! But to wait was an invitation to even more distaster and nastiness. My husband took on the laundry while I took on dishes and reclaiming the kitchen. 20 loads of laundry later - all of the blankets and towels that we hung around windows and doors to try to keep air from coming in. Sleeping bangs that were slept in and heck, while you're going to the laundry mat anyway, every bed was stripped from comforter to the matress and washed. He lost count at 16 loads of laundry. I did't bother to count the number of locads of dishes.

The parakeets made it through. But I can tell they are seriously mad at me. So Skye and Lacey will continue to inspire children's stories. Sadly, the bettas didn't make it. I feel terrible about their loss. Most of them were show quality imported from Thailand. I was getting ready to breed my stunning blue over halfmoon male with an extraordinary red/blue halfmoon female. But I am glad that I didn't have a tank full of tiny baby bettas when this happened. I would have been beyond devistated to have lost them.

The funny part was when I went to prime the aquarium pump that had stopepd without power. I poured a cup of water in the pump to prime it and it started again. I came in later to find what I thought was condensation in the tank above the water line. Turns out it was soap bubbles. I had inadvertantly poured a cup of soapy water into the pump without realizing and the tank was full of soap bubbles. One way to clean the tank. At least I didn't harm a fish in the process.

Saturday morning, I headed to the grocery store. It opened at 8am. The line was around the building and down the street. Most of the shelves were stripped of bread, water, milk, eggs, meats, cheese, cereal and produce was hit hard. The checkout lines were into the center of the store. It was insane!

Today, Sunday, we are all still recovering from the stress of the week, trying to catch up. I'm not sure if we are sleeping or simply passing out. So much to catch up on. Having taken care of several house issues, I'm tyring to catch up a bit on line. It's sunny and 70 degrees - our usually late February weather. If you didn't know what had happened, you wouldn't know! The snow is gone. The boil water order has been lifted and other than where they are working on power, most have power again.

Oh so many lessons learned and blessings counted. We're all fine. ERCOT is a new four-letter word and there are lots of people with some 'splaining' to do. With the storm having involved the entire state, it will take a bit of time to investigate and resolve. Just glad I don't work for them! But image the entire state of Texas being seriously ticked off - and worse - being ticked off at YOU! It isn't going to end well or pretty.

Jack got to make his first snowman and snow angel. It is a week he will sure remember. And I know we will have our typical 100+ degree summer soon enough. Just thankful that we made it through without serious issues beyond the loss of food and fish. And I know were were oh, so lucky!!!

Thanks for checking in and the warm wishes.

Cheers from sunnier - and warmer - San Antonio!

Christine