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Still Here

Still Here
  • PublishedJanuary 25, 2022


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I understand they made a bumper sticker saying, “I Survived the Big Freeze of 21.”  Can’t say the same thing for a lot of water pipes and green plants, especially on the north side of your house.  I drove by a neighboring house undergoing some renovation after a sale.  Water was pouring out of the garage door after a night with no heat.  I don’t know if the swimming pool and hot tub fared any better.  Swimming pools took a hit across the state.

Sadly a lot of our critters had a hard time.  Some stockmen were able to help protect their livestock, but more than one good cow ended up stuck in pools and frozen in the ice trying to get a drink.  It was almost a full-time job trying to put out water on the patio for the neighbor’s dog who gets confused as to where it lives.  I kept swapping out water dishes as they quickly froze.  We finally gave in as the dog lay on the back porch on the cold concrete.  I took a card table, sleeping bag, and heavy blankets and built a make shift igloo that was quickly adopted by our guest for the duration of the freeze.

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My last memory of something close to this was 1983 when I missed a day visiting my newborn son in the hospital getting a little extra treatment for jaundice that kept him there until Christmas Eve when he came home in a stocking.  That was the winter I put a wood stove insert into the voracious wood eating, cold air spewing fireplace and installed a set of atrium doors to help stop the freight train wind stream coming through the sliding doors on the patio.

It didn’t take long to see the after effect of this latest Arctic blast.  When trees and shrubs failed to green up in March we said a lot of them bit the dust.  Roads, streets, and highways sometime took a little while but eventually we found chug holes and chunks of concrete popping up in the roadways.  Poor overworked plumbers and newly poor plumber customers continued to fight busted pipes and damaged property from gushers and dribblers.

For a lot of us who didn’t lose power, heat, or water, we looked to the south and said, “Thank you Lord” for sparing us from frozen windmills and heatless nights.  All of the above serves as a reminder that we don’t control anything.  This little “Remember Me” stretch of ice and snow just tugged on our cape and said, “I’m still here if you need me.  Don’t wait so long between visits.”

By Dr. Juan Harrison

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Written By
Christian Dicus

Christian Dicus is a Sulphur Springs, Texas native. She currently works as the Director of Operations and Content Strategist for Chad's Media LLC. As well as a photographer and contributing writer for Front Porch News.