Routine living in TX was put on hold last week.

I’m writing this from a latitude approx 1300 miles south of Ensenada Mexico. The last time I remember any snow this far south in the US was the early 70s in AL (it was barely a few inches).

Imagine an average northeastern snowfall (6 to 10 inches) and subtract snowplows, ice prevention, personal snow removal, regular deliveries of food to grocery stores and half the population not having regular experience with an average northeastern snowfall.

By Tuesday afternoon it was apparent that headpunch was gonna leave TX seeing stars for a little more than a bit. Regardless of whats been reported, there’s big dfference between hearing stories and actually living them.

My only reason for this post was to highlight two things that never seem to be mentioned in all of the coverage:

I witnessed genuine civility and I saw people adapt.

Mondays snowfall was accompanied by single digit temperatures and freezing rain. A majority of drivers on the local roads didn’t have experience in these conditions. By Thursday, with roads still covered with snow and patches of ice, the traffic flowed at safe speeds and the spinning wheels carrying SUVs sideways through four way stops were gone.

On Friday my local grocery store, after two days of early closures, were now limiting the store capacity. While we all waited in lines to get a chance to buy whatever was left, native Texans and new arrivals were talking to each other, sharing helpful information and solving problems based on life experience from where they came from and how things applied based on the history of “where we’re at”.

Yesterday (Saturday) was warm enough for the snow and ice to melt away. The stores haven’t been resupplied, but I’m hearing I35 humming with traffic. After being here long enough to watch TX recover from floods and hurricanes, shelf stock will be probably back to normal this time next week.