Storms and the end of school

This past week, we got some nasty weather which caused so many disruptions. 

First, I had a work trip to Amarillo on the same day the storm front came through Texas. My original flight was set to depart at 4:30 p.m. but it got delayed multiple times and pushed back so far that I didn't arrive in Amarillo until after 3 a.m. 😵

Winter madness (Amarillo, TX)

I'm in the middle of all that nastiness. 

Winter crisis in Texas

A winter blast is coming. The weather forecast predicted it days (if not a week) in advance... with a high likelihood of snow in Texas. How exciting! Or so we thought.

By Monday morning, Presidents' Day, the snow and cold weather came. We woke up to no electricity which went out around 1 a.m. Good thing the kids already had the day off or else everyone would've been late for school. Naturally, we played in the rare Texas snow.

"Free" 72 oz steak (Amarillo, TX)

What did I get myself into?

What day is it?

Groundhog Day (1993)

COVID-19 and April

COVID-19 and social distancing

COVID-19 and toilet paper

As mentioned on the previous post, we were out of town for Spring Break and that's when things started to get "crazy". Cases of COVID-19 started to increase and people began to panic buy. Hand sanitizer was already hard to find (understandable) but toilet paper was impossible to come by. For the life of me, I will never understand why. Why would people hoard toilet paper during a pandemic? And it just so happen that our supply was low before we left for our vacation (only 3 rolls left).

When it rains, it pours (literally)

When it rains in Houston, there's always a chance of local flooding. So when a hurricane or tropical storm comes, flooding is guaranteed. It began on Wednesday when Tropical Storm Imelda made landfall. The school district canceled all classes so everyone got to stay home. The day was pretty uneventful, raining on and off, nothing too heavy. On Thursday, schools were open and we're back to our regular schedule... or so we all thought.

Hurricane Harvey

Holy shit. The entire city is under water. And we're still not done yet. It all began Friday when school was canceled for the pending arrival of Hurricane Harvey. That night, the storm made landfall south of us (around Corpus Christi) and on the next day, all was calm. Besides the early morning showers, it didn't really rain all day. A few light sprinkles here and there but that was it. Why was everyone getting so hyped up for this storm? I thought this was a bullshit hurricane and I wasn't the only one with that opinion. And that's when Harvey said fuck you and raped us in the ass... over and over again.

Baby boom

#MeltdownTown

What if I told you the Astros had a 2-1 lead in a best of 5 series and are up by 4 scores at the start of the 8th inning (6-2). They're only 6 outs away from advancing to the American League Championship Series (ALCS). The bats of the Astros have been red hot and the Royals can't seem to generate any offense. It's a done deal right? Or so I thought...

Mr. Mom

With the arrival of baby Elliot, I ended up getting 4 weeks of paternity leave. Awesome, right? I'll help out here and there with the kids but otherwise thought this would be a mini-vacation. All the boys will be at school and Lynn and I can double team a tiny human. During the day, the adults would actually outnumber the kid(s). But to my surprise, it wasn't the paradise that I had hoped.

A winter "vacation" II (Denver, CO)

The word vacation is in quotes (again) which will soon be explained. And the II denotes our second winter break road trip as a family. This was something I wanted to do again after the disastrous first trip of two years ago. I wanted redemption. But unfortunately, I would not get it on this trip. Throughout the whole trip, I kept finding myself repeating the same words: what the fuck!

Icepocalypse

The Icepocalypse, or ice apocalypse, or The Ice Storm, or whatever you want to call it first came to Texas last Friday. At the first sign of a possible freeze, people in Houston panic and go, "Oh, hellll nah. There be ice on mah car. Ain't no body got time for that. I gots to stay home." Maybe it didn't happen exactly like that but close enough. The city panics. The news is running non-stop winter freeze coverage. They shut down schools and major bridges so I stayed home Friday with the kids. No big deal. That was until the Icepocalypse II came yesterday.

Six guys, a girl and a pizza place

A winter "vacation" (Angel Fire, NM)

Last week we've been away on "vacation" (hence the lack of an update) but what was supposed to be a fun and relaxing time turned into an exhausting experience. The plan was to drive the day after Christmas to New Mexico (Angel Fire) and spend five nights there, leaving on New Years Day. This trip was planned months in advance (April) but no one could have foreseen the endemic to come.