Please allow me to interject my feelings about Mother Nature

Is this because most of these homes have electric heat and that's taxing the system? Up here, that's the first thing to look out for when renting or buying.

My sister and her family live in Friday Night Lights country. They know what to do but they keep chickens so keeping the animals alive and their water unfrozen is a bit of a pain in the ass.

 

Yes. Electric heat, water heaters and dryers are common down here.

 

Normally the electric company gets that sort of load during the heat of the summer, pushing current to air conditioners. This sort of cold statewide in Texas is very rare. It's a big place and it isn't often that the cold is this widespread there.

 

It's still soggy as can be here, but it's 54, and the sun did pop out for a few minute before it starts pouring again.
That did give me a few minutes to go catch my first fish of the year, so it's not all bad.

 

First thing I look for is underground power lines. I see those overhanging things, "Uh, let's look in a newer neighborhood."

 

Nice. Gotta throw that little feller back and let it fatten up for a few years.

I ate a ton of bass ad a kid, but it takes not just a back seat but a trunk to crappie and catfish.

 

Hmm. According to the Wall Street Journal, blackouts are caused by green energy ambitions. Or at least when states with the blackouts make for easy straw men, like California.

"This happens when you rush to shut down power plants to meet government diktats and reduce the amount of reliable baseload power. Unlike fossil fuel plants, solar and wind can’t ramp up quickly when other power generators go down. Solar power also plunges in the evening, and the state didn’t have enough backup power to compensate to meet high demand.”

Or so the WSJ said about California in 2020, during the height of wildfire season.

Who knew Texas and Arkansas were such commie socialists, advancing green energy at the expense of good ol' fossil fuel.

 

I agree on all counts. He put up a good fight on an ultralight rod.

 

I hope to get back to wading Ozark creeks this summer with an ultralight in hand. Smallmouth, trout, perch, maybe a largemouth, and on rare occasion a goggle-eye. All catch and release.