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Power Trip
From climate change to electrical grids to our jobs, our diets and our homes, it can be humbling to realize how little power we really have.
I didn’t have the Texas winter storm that bad.
In fact I was remarkably lucky. It could have been so much worse.
In June 2020 I took my first lockdown getaway, a two-night stay in Dripping Springs. It felt great to get out of town, if not all that far away, and sequester myself someplace else.
Days, weeks and months dragged on. I realized I needed to get away again.
With little else to do Thanksgiving weekend, and feeling the crush of being stuck in my apartment, I reserved an Airbnb in Wimberly for the three nights of Presidents’ Day weekend.
By that Friday the weather was already spotty. I knew I’d be taking a risk, but I thought a worst-case scenario would be having to stay an extra night and returning Tuesday morning.
I’ll never forget the storm that Sunday night. I was staying in the upstairs cottage of a working farm. I was far more secluded than I’d ever been in any kind of storm, especially a snowstorm.
The wind whipping sleet against the cottage structure was noisy and relentless. Gusts rattled windows well into the night. Trying to sleep, I didn’t want to imagine what it must have felt like out…
