Tucson and the rest of southern Arizona right now is in the midst of record cold temperatures. We hit a low of 18F, and we were below freezing until about 2:30 PM. We are in for more of the same. My citrus trees do not look like they will be living for too much longer and I likely have lost some other plants as well.
There was no running water this morning. Online comments in the web page of the local viewspaper indicated widespread water and gas outages. The City of Tucson, which owns the water company, reported that 1000 customers were without water but the plumber that I talked to said the figure is more like 4000.
Down in the Rita Ranch subdivision, they are without gas and will be until Tuesday. I've already passed along an offer of help to Birdman and his wife to come over here if they need a hot shower as that my water is now back on. I did have a plumber out here to confirm that I didn't have any leaks and to give me tips on proper preparation. I got off lucky but one house on this street did not.....they have a broken water main.
I've seen two service trucks arrive to service heaters. My next door neighbor had someone out and so did the house across the street. I've had heat, gas and electricity. I don't think there are any electrical outages in Tucson as that I haven't seen any reports. It's mainly the gas and water that we've had problems with.
It ain't over yet. We're in for a low of 20F tonight and the next night after. Nature is dealing us an even more cruel blow than she did four years ago when I lost an evergreen and a lemon tree. I'm thinking right now I might have to have my replacement lemon tree dug out, as well as my tangerine and grapefruit trees. As for the fruits themselves, their only use right now is for target practice, or to take them out to some canyon somewhere and splatter them against the rocks.
Workwise, I took today off as that I did not have my morning shower, and didn't want to be bringing attention to myself with any malodorous conditions that I might be suffering from. My truck is in the shop right now for another problem which may be aggravated by the cold; it had been acting up upon starting for two or three weeks and if anything I was finally able to demonstrate the problem to my trusted mechanic.
I guess if Todd wants to go out rabbit hunting, only the healthy ones are alive right now, but I'm not sure that there's that many of them. I've seen more coyote sightings these past two weeks than usual, and someone I know spotted some javelina a few days ago, so the critters just might be coming into the neighborhoods as that we're at a slightly lower elevation than to the east and north of us.
We could use some relief from this, and my suggested remedy is that we get the Inventor of the Internet into southern Arizona to spout off about global warming. If he keeps his mouth open enough, it might warm things up here by ten degrees.
I bet it is hard to handle the cold when you're not used to it. Its amazing how when I lived in Los Angeles, I'd feel cold when it got down to the high 50s or low 60s, get all bundled up in my heavy coat. Now after living in Philadelphia, I'm still in shorts in the 60s, I don't put on a coat until its down in the 40s.
ReplyDeleteI hope you and Todd eat any rabbits you hunt. They are very good.