The entire Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is hunkering down. Schools are cancelled. The roads are being salted. Today will come freezing rain and sleet. Tomorrow, snow. The forecast following that looks sunny, but for now, it’s all about that cold weather this metroplex isn’t built for.
A year ago, we found ourselves in a similar predicament - Snowpocalypse, snowmageddon. Two winter storms hit us with more snow and cold that we could handle. Loss of power, water and heat. Basics that you absolutely need to survive this type of extreme weather.
I was lucky. Who knew that living right across a hospital was a plus? Power: check! Water: check! Heat: Well, it struggled, but I did not need to break down and burn furniture for warmth.
Funny how today is actually Groundhog Day, where a chubby, wee mammal makes predictions on how much more winter we will have. [With all the science that can tell the weather - down to the anticipated number of inches of snowfall, we still take to a marmot’s shadow. I guess we do need cute animals in the bleak of winter. So add that to your winter survival basics.] The actual day that inspired the classic 90’s Bill Murray movie, where each day repeats itself. And so, here is DFW in our own version of Groundhog Day.
According to science, it’s not as bad. We’d see the sun thereafter. But for people, well, we can expect hysteria, but more the bad than the good kind. With good reason. If you’ve lost power, water and heat, that’s PTSD inducing.
As for me, I’ve made sure we are prepared. The week after the storm, I bought a single butane burner to offset any loss of cooking capabilities as we are dependent on an electric burner. I also bought boxes of matches to, uhm, start a fire? Let’s just hope we’d not come to that. I don’t have an axe to chop down the wood we might need…yet.
Didi
What I’ve worked on:
Happy New Year to those who celebrate! I wrote a piece on how to celebrate Lunar New Year (Not, Chinese new year) in 2022. I let the communities who celebrate take the lead here.
Also, we have an Indonesian restaurant! Yay!
What I’ve been reading:
I’m still in the middle of “Memorial” by Bryan Washington. I fell in love with his writing ever since his Catapult essays in 2016. I made the trek to Dallas via bus and train (Gasp!) to meet him in person when he read from “Lot: Stories” a collection of short stories with modern day, now Houston as the backdrop.
His is the writing I love, void of highfalutin words, with depth. He is one who proves that simplicity does not mean lack of complexity and nuance. I took pictures of lines that struck me, including this:
“None of the other patrons said anything about it. But they didn’t have to. I got it. There was a degree of separation, this sort of wall that popped up, because I was one of them, but I wasn’t, and never would be, and that’s just how it was.
It struck me as my Lunar New Year piece was edited to say “DFW has a large and booming immigrant population so finding someone willing to share shouldn't be too hard, and making new friends and building bridges is a grand way to kick off the new year.” I cringed so hard as a lot of the transplants are from other states. Sigh, the perpetual foreigner conundrum. So I asked for it to be changed to Asian population instead. Thank god, he listened.
What I’ve watched:
Midnight Asia on Netflix took me back to the homeland, which reminded me on how much and how little it’s changed. That when you’re in the chaos of the grind, you fail to see the sparkling lights, the pockets of beauty and madness.