Last weekend we had beautiful weather. We went for a bike ride at the lake and the ice cream trucks were out. Then Monday night a cold front came through, and we woke up Tuesday to thick hockey rink ice everywhere.

I expected that Dallas’s response would be slow, even though ice storms are not unusual here. I did not expect that the official response here is “wait for Mr. Sun to take care of it”. There is no salting or sanding here, either by the city or business owners, so three days later with temperatures still below 25, it’s still a mess. Schools are closed tomorrow for the fourth day, in part because the parking lots are still icy. Wow.

Anyway, a little ice doesn’t stop us yankees, so Ed and I have been out and about (in my car). The first day, Ed couldn’t stop himself from doing a few intentional fishtails. I approved.

One thing I never had to worry about in the north though is frozen pipes. Wednesday morning we discovered that there was no hot water. Just a trickle of water would come out of the hot tap, and it was cold. We have a tankless water heater installed outside, and even though it is rated to 5 degrees, and all of the pipes are wrapped, something had gone horribly wrong. I opened up the closest tap to the heater, grabbed a hairdryer, and headed outside. The problem was I didn’t know where the jam was; there are lots of pipes, plus the unit itself, which looks kind of like a breaker box on the outside, but like a computer on this inside, with copper tubing. Fortunately after standing out there awhile in the freezing cold with no progress, I had a brilliant idea. I got a sheet, threw it over all of the pipes and the heater AND the dryer vent which happens to be right there, and went in and dried a load of nothing on high. Eighteen minutes later, I heard water rushing from the tap, and the heater kicked on. Meanwhile though, the water out in my unheated garage workshop is not working and I haven’t been able to figure it out, so I have my fingers crossed that we don’t have a burst pipe out there. I have been able to get the temperature out there up to around fifty, so I hope that helps. It is colder in the sunroom where I keep my plants, so I actually covered them inside last night.

We lent our luge to the kid across the street, and he and his friends have been having a great time with it.

And unfortunately, this has kind of ruined Dallas’ Super Bowl experience. It will be warmer by game time, but typically the week prior is a great big outdoor party, and it sure has been quiet here.

I took my bike with me, and fit in two beautiful training rides in the hills. Good practice for next week’s MS150. Becky and I also went out to her property twice, and I collected interesting rocks while she watered the herbs she’s started out there. In addition to the rocks I brought back, I was also rewarded with six tomato plants, four pepper plants, and an eggplant, all of which she started from seed. And I stopped on the way home at the San Antonio location of the Antique Rose Emporium, which is almost (but not quite) as nice as the original one near Brenham. I am planting three new roses (and all of the vegetables) outside today.