The photo says it all: Today I received my second COVID-19 shot! Yes, even though not much has happened since my last blogpost—at least not from a personal standpoint as I did not have to face an impeachment trial—the two vaccinations since I returned home from Morelia on January 19 obviously have been a huge thing. I had turned 65 on January 17, and this new eligibility as a member of the 1B group of citizens meant that on January 21 I received my first shot. As I have mentioned on Facebook and in private messages, Lubbock's vaccination clinics have been stellar: on time, well-organized, without crowds, featuring truly impressive volunteers, and efficient to a T. Wow. For once I can't bitch about a single thing, and Lubbock's Health Department deserves mega kudos.
Today was the day of my second Moderna shot, and it came only 24 hours after the coldest night that I have ever experienced in Lubbock. More about that in a second. My appointment was at 10:45 a.m., and once again the snow had started to fall. Nevertheless, my good old Toyota 4x4 (having been on life-support for the past week thanks to the trickle charger in the frigid garage) delivered me on time at the downtown Civic Center. I arrived at 10:40 a.m., and even after the mandatory 15-minute medical observation period after the shot I left the building at exactly 11:00 a.m. I think that tells you something about the smoothness of the entire operation.
As you can see, there was no lack of decent home-cooked meals, and I intend to keep it like that. The Cornish Hens that will be placed on a bed of lemons and rosemary tomorrow night are slowly defrosting in the fridge. Last night's boneless beef short ribs were, after three hours in the oven, as succulent and flavorful as any beef I've ever tasted. Mornings more often than not start out with chocolate chip cookies, and after a local coffee shop was able to fix my good old Saeco coffee machine's electronic hiccup there's really not much to worry about when it comes to food and drink. Another shipment of CH wine is scheduled to arrive in the next few days. What more could a man want? Well, maybe a little trip abroad ... Good thing Mexico is waiting for me! 😁
So long,
By the time I got back to the house, all the streets were once again blanketed with a thick layer of pulver. With temperatures in the single digits the snow is fluffy and light. All 254 counties in Texas are under an emergency declaration issued by the governor; yesterday, the highest temperature in the state was a frigid 37 F in McAllen (in the Rio Grande valley). The Alamo in San Antonio is covered by snow. More than 4 million customers are without power, and even Lubbock reportedly has rolling blackouts because of downed lines and power-generation failures downstate. The entire city of Abilene, with about 125,000 inhabitants 2½ hours south of us, has been without water for at least 24 hours as the local processing plants went offline because of power issues. Martha and Alan in Temple just texted me that their friends Kyle and Lindsey (close to Georgetown) have been without electricity for 37 hours—fat chance of getting it back tonight, I assume. Things are pretty dire. From Sunday to Monday we dipped down to 0 F, or minus 17.777 Celsius.
Fortunately, not all my time back home has been marked by such temperatures. I believe it was early last week that I rode my bike in shorts and short sleeves on several occasions. A week ago Sunday I officiated our first WTCA gravel time trial in 77-degree temperatures. But then there were also the windy, dust-blowing afternoons that left sand dunes on the road, and also some very chilly (but rideable) days. That's Texas for you; actually, that's the lack of decent mountains north of us to keep the Polar Express from swooping down and the crazy west winds that make it possible to see New Mexico fly by. This past weekend we were supposed to open our High School Mountain Bike racing season in the Hillcountry's Burnet, but we did cancel the race when the writing started to appear on the wall. People could have died.
Overall, it's been a fairly relaxed month since returning from Mexico. Most of the time the weather cooperated and I was able to maintain some fitness with my daily rides. The current conditions, of course, don't allow much outside activity as the windchill thanks to daytime single digits presents a real danger. Last week my Austin friends Micki and Kent stayed overnight on their way to NM and CO, and tomorrow they'll camp out for another night in the guest room on the way back home. My friend Beth stopped by for a few dinners (most notably a yummy steak on Valentine's), and I had a chance to try out my newest kitchen acquisition, a 5-quart Dutch oven, the in-between size that was needed to fill the gaping hole between the bread-making Staub and the bring-on-the-family Creuset.
