Power went off

and the new generator kicked in and computers and modems and fridge and freezer and microwave and HVAC and most importantly coffee pot kept working.

this is wonderful.

My place has an electric stove, so if the power goes out for long, I can't cook.I did keep the camp stove, but I haven't checked that out for a while.

And two more fairly short outages.It's good to know it really works.

It's been three days now with no power and my front porch looks like a Geek Squader's basement.I put out a couple power strips on the porch so neighbors could plug in their cell phones to charge and so now there are cell phones all lined up getting charged. Down to just one now but it's been as many as six-eight out there. Also I've given out several butane cans to folk that have little camp stoves and on Coleman Propane bottle to a neighbor who had a camp stove but no propane.For Christmas this year I gave my sister a big heavy weighted blanket and a butane one burner stove. Here apartment is all electric and in her area it's not just no power but they are also under a "Boil the Water" alert. That just ain't happening when there is no electricity.No idea when power will return and the local Charter/Spectrum cable tv/internet/phone folk are down and will not even begin restoring service until the power is back. I'm using my cell phone as a hot spot to get internet service but boy is it slow and laggy.

There are serious problems with power in Texas. Some people (predictably) are trying to blame wind generators, but most of the shortfall is from natural gas or coal plants going offline.

First, the Texas grid is NOT interconnected to either the Western or Eastern power networks.Second, nothing was winterized, not solar not wind, not coal or gas.Texas got exactly what it wanted.

To be more precise.. the various plants were not winterized. Things got deregulated, so they didn't keep up with maintenance and good design. Texas it their own power grid for 'independence, so their ability to import power from other states is curtailed. To a large degree, it's because of the libertarian polices of the last two governors in Texas.

I wish it was just the last two but it actually goes back to 1935 when the Texas Independent Grid was created to avoid oversight and federal utility regulations.AbE:At 10:24 last night there was a text message from AEP that power was back on in the neighborhood.YAY!But my generator and all the other houses in the neighborhood didn't get the text so the generator kept working and no lights came on.At 5:04 this morning there was a text message from AEP that there was an outage in this neighborhood and that an estimated time for restoration will be updated when available.The power strips will stay on my porch for awhile.Edited by jar, : see AbE:

I hear the Texas governor has already conceded that it wasn't green power that brought down the Texas grid. How did he imagine the northern parts of the country are able to get windmills and solar power to work? Did he ever really believe such an absurd charge was going to stick?Fun fact about solar: solar cells are less efficient at higher temperatures. Though the north gets much less sun than the south, especially in winter, its solar cells run about 15% more efficiently on average because of lower operating temperatures.Many of the news reports out of Texas mention very low inside temperatures (in the 30's) and burst pipes, so it sounds like Texas homes might tend to have little or no insulation, and that they might not avoid running water pipes in outside walls.--Percy

It's not just home water pipes that froze. Even Natural Gas well heads and coal piles were frozen.

Ted Cruz has got going - to Cancun.

IOW, Ted Cruz has gone from being a "Goon from Saskatoon" to being a "Goon in Cancún".I learned the "goon from Saskatoon" phrase in my childhood from the zoot-suit Tom & Jerry cartoon (standard double features in pre-1970 theatres, especially matinées, included a cartoon between the two features. A lot of the cartoons were a couple decades old).Cruz was born in Canada (in Calgary), so that's close enough to Saskatoon. And applying the "goon" part to him is so self-evident that it writes itself.

Texas Republicans are just too cheap-ass to pay for that service. They'd rather have their own people die than to spend anything to help them.And if the Texas "leaders" were to pay for that life-saving Jewish Space Laser service, what you wanna bet that they'd only thaw out the red districts and leave the blue districts to die. Because that's how Republicans roll.

Apparently Cruz is returning to Texas.I just now heard breaking news that Cruz' staff has reached out to the Houston Police Department. To request police support to help Cruz get out of the airport.Wow!