Tiffany Crystal's Forecast for the day:

Legolas watched them for awhile with a smile upon his lips, and then he turned to the others. “The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over grass and leaf, or over snow–an Elf.”

With that he sprang forth nimbly […] and his feet made little imprint in the snow.

‘Farewell!’ he said to Gandalf. ‘I go to find the Sun!’

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

In the weeks leading up to my journey from Texas to the Kentucky area, I had numerous people ask me, “Why there?” Every time, my response was the same: “They get SNOW.”

Now, I’m in the Kentucky area, I got my snow, and Texas…well…

You’ve all seen the news, right?

It’s bad. Very bad. I’ve reached out to my family and friends in Texas. One of them didn’t lose power, but I think it’s because they live onsite at a business. The others…one just got his power back on after three days of nothing. The other hasn’t had power in five days now. She went to a friend’s house who does have power to charge her phone. They’re holding out okay, but there are millions who are still going without.

My sister is an optimistic soul. She’s hoping that this will help curb the COVID outbreak in Texas, but I don’t see that happening. The state is having to open up their shelters and warming stations for families without power, which means large numbers of people packed in (relatively speaking) small spaces. There’s no other choice though. Either people freeze or they expose themselves – and their families – to a deadly virus. Read that again, folks. Either they slowly freeze to death or put themselves at higher risk of catching a disease that has already killed millions worldwide.

And then, there’s Ted Cruz, who – after giving the smarmiest “I got no defense 🤷‍♀️” response to someone calling him out for blasting California’s energy problem, while not taking care of his own home state’s power grid – decides that he’s tired of the snow and jaunts off to Cancun, Mexico.

I’m not usually a “thoughts and prayers” person, but if you have any of either of those to send up for the people of Texas, please do. While you’re at it, please pray that they finally realize their “representatives” don’t actually represent them and vote them out.