Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Winter in the Rio Grande Valley

 What a difference from the last time I posted. We once again got extremely cold down here in the RGV. This time was not as bad as the "Big Freeze" in February of 2021 which lasted almost a week with no power but that time we were in the 5th Wheel and had a generator and we were snug as two bugs in a rug! This time it got down in the upper 20s and about 2:30 this morning our neighbor's generator which he installed last year, came on. I thought wow, we have power, I wonder why they don't. Well, silly me, yes we had power B U T. . . down here it is called 1/2 power and at home we would call it a brownout. We had power for the lights and TV but that was it - no coffee maker, no stove, no microwave and most importantly, no furnace, thus no heat. We are all electric here. As it turns out there were very few homes that had lost half their power. A transformer on our end of the street had a wire hanging down off of it so two streets were affected, our street and the one in back of us. All homes affected were in a relatively small area but we were one of them. AEP came in and fixed the problem and about 10:30 this morning the furnace was humming away. It did take a long time to heat the house and everything in it, back to a comfortable temperature but tonight everything is just fine and has been ever since it came back on.

Ron and Chris Pearce both have covid and Darlene had it a short time ago. Everyone (not us) went to the New Years Eve party and that turned out to be a super-spreader so lots of sick people in the park. Once in a while we will run into former Magnolia people and it's always nice to see them. Barb & Butch Brooker  who live over at Trophy Gardens in Alamo went square dancing and ran into Mary and Dave Bruun  and Barb had posted a picture of them on her blog. It was nice to see and did remind us of the "good old days" when we all were part of the Magnolia family.

Lots going on in our park this week, a big shuffleboard tournament which has had to change the days due to the extreme cold, a Welcome Back dinner tomorrow night put on by Encore, the corporation that owns this park and many more, and then a big shuffleboard dinner Sunday night which will have lots of guests. Everyone keeps busy that's for sure.

I hope all is well with all of you and as always, if you have news to share do let me know. I hear from quite a few prior Magnolia people quite often including Mabel Zoot and Edna Walker, just two of them I'll mention. We do wonder about others that no one seems to have any contact with. Lots of good memories, that's for sure.

Do keep in touch, it's always nice to hear from you.

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