Snowpocalypse

I remember getting snow more than once, but I’m struggling to remember it as separate events. I just checked and the last big snowfall in Dallas was in 2010, when we got fourteen inches and jokingly called it the snowpocalypse.

I don’t remember mass struggling then. Dad says the exact same thing happened, and very little changed. I guess I just wasn't 'plugged in' I’m sure the homeless had issues that I wasn’t aware of.

But it wasn’t this cold.

Maybe I think it was twice and I’m just remembering the same event. I remember driving to Fuzzy’s Taco Shop to bum some power for my phone, and I remember going to P.F. Chang’s for my sister’s birthday.

The calendar says the snow was on the 11. Her birthday is on the 4. So maybe I’m thinking of something else.

I wish this year could’ve been no big deal, when the biggest thing of note was the people from church pulling their kids around the parking lot on a sled with their car.

Even when it slailed–that’s sleet and hail, and we acted like we made it up–we treated it as a snow day. There was ice on the ground everywhere. The kids had a blast. We weren’t used to it and it was fun! The flat driveways were the same as skating rinks! It was something none of us had experienced at home.

I wonder what happened then. I don’t remember losing power. I don’t know what happened to other people. I was too little to search out that information the same way I do now. I cared, I just didn’t have the same agency and access.

This should’ve been normal. A minor blip in the system.

It’s a shame that so many Texans are learning about their own power grid through Twitter.

I'm thankful for those who came together to share tips with us after they learned of all the suffering. But where was that information beforehand?

We knew this was coming. The PSA's should've had more coverage. I'm numb, and when I'm not numb, I'm deeply angry and distressed.

All this stress is affecting my memory. I can't remember what I remember. It was like this before the storm, but everything's been kicked up to 11.

It seems like everyone's moved on from this, for the most part. Texans are still openly angry with Ted Cruz on social media, but the next week's news cycle has moved in. There are people who still don't have water, and their maintenance providers won't give them a date for the fix. There's millions of dollars of debt that should never have been accrued.

Abbott didn't apologize for his role in this catastrophe. He didn't apologize for lying about the cause of it on national TV. He's acting like he's fixing things, when he should have made sure the grid was stable before the storm.

Way before.

Again: we knew this was coming. It was not a surprise. The forecast told us how much snow and how cold it was going to get. They should have been prepared. It was their responsibility, and they dropped the ball.

A few members of ERCOT dropped out because they live in other states. If they've issues apologies, I haven't seen them. I haven't seen any accountability. I have seen people shift the focus and make excuses--the president called this incident something that 'moves the goalsposts.'

Plenty of other states get snow and sub-zero temperatures all the time. I'm not an expert in electrical grids, but I know how industry standards work. You look at the industry standards and build your equipment accordingly.

They don't have to move the goalposts, because they never bothered to buy them in the first place. They wanted to save money. Congrats. This catastrophe has cost more money than Hurricane Harvey and Ike combined.

I've been begging everyone to call their senators and ask for the removal of Abbott and Cruz from office. I don't know if anyone is hearing me. I don't know if anyone is doing it.

It's isolating. It's terrifying. It's infuriating.

It's hard to get any work done in these conditions.

When I get to the computer, I just want to decompress and forget about everything that's bothering me for a while. It's easy to disappear into a video game. It's hard enough to find a job in normal conditions, harder when the economy is in shambles, harder when there's a global pandemic, harder when you've lived through a state-wide tragedy that could have been prevented by the politicians who are supposed to represent you and your interests, and harder still to do any of this with any kind of mental illness.

If you're reading this, please keep fighting for the removal of the people responsible for this situation. It isn't over. So many lives are irreparably damaged--and for what? For greed. For grandstanding claims of autonomy.

Resistbot can easily connect you to your representatives, and to various petitions. Please use it. Please don't make us suffer 3 more years of these people.

They clearly aren't listening. Will you?