From Ice Cream Binge to Hot Chicken Soup

 

 
I moved here last April to escape the cold temps of the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, but I must have brought the cold weather with me because we are in the midst of a cold snap that has brought record temps and is causing all kinds of problems for people in the Deep South. 

I have accepted that there is indeed a winter season here, even if it is much more mild than what I'm used to. But, I'll tell you, when it's 50 and windy here, it feels downright cold! And now, with actual temps dipping into the 20's at night, it's pretty frigid.

The power went out a few days ago. The first day, when I awoke to no power in the middle of the night, I though maybe it was a planned outage - a rolling outage, designed to avoid a big stall. But on the second day, I had ice cream melting in the freezer that needed to be eaten, and I was glad to oblige, as I sat on the couch wrapped in my warm, crocheted poncho my daughter made and recently brought down for me. 

The third day, I was struggling, as I have a health condition that is triggered by the cold, which was causing me to have seizures and paralysis attacks. When I was strong enough, I would go out to my car and crank up the heat. I tried to do that as often as I could to keep me from having ongoing attacks. 

A loving couple brought me over some steamy, made-from-scratch chicken soup, which was such a welcome change from the cold cereal and refrigerated stuff I was trying to use up. They also filled my car with gas so I could keep using the heater to warm myself up every so often. I am so grateful for their help. Still, I spent many hours in bed, just wadded up in my poncho and layers of blankets. 

Finally, on the third evening, there was hope in sight when the lights began flickering on and off. They were off when I went to bed, but on when I got up. What a relief to be able to turn on the heat and cook some food!

Meanwhile, in my old Nebraska home, they were experiencing actual temps of  -30 to -40 degrees, so I feel like I can't complain - except that they are more prepared for that sort of thing up there. But I'm praying all will be safe. It's been quite a week.