I got up early again so that I could turn off the Jeep. Once up, it made no sense to go back to bed. It had thawed a lot and most of the ice was gone from the trees and grass, making it safe to walk around. We harnessed up and wandered surveying the damage as we did. There were branches down everywhere and the one close to my RV had fallen just brushing the slide a bit apparently, without causing any damage. 

Daniel and Malinda and a couple of others, from Sunset, the other RV Park, were already out working dragging the downed branches into orderly piles ready to be picked up. They had a chain saw run by one of the other guys who was cutting off the branches that had fallen but not broken off completely. I considered going over to help but they appeared to have a good system going and I would probably just get in the way. 

The power was still off, which meant that I had very little that I could get up to in the way of writing or of anything else. I sat there thinking about things and managed to drop off to sleep. I took a short nap and when I woke up, decided to check the gas level in the Jeep. Good thing I did as it was almost empty with the danger warning showing. 

Hoping that I had enough to get to the nearest gas station about 10 miles down the road, I drove that distance and pulled into one of the pumps only to discover that it did not have any power. Silly me, I should have thought a bit before just tearing off. If the campground did not have gas, then anything going away from town would probably be in the same boat. 

I passed a couple of gas stations as I headed back into town and finally stopped at HEB where the gas is a little cheaper. There was a line at every pump, and I joined one of them. In front of me was a big truck and much to my annoyance (of course), the driver kept messing with the pump trying to squeeze that last all important drop out of it. He finally drove off and I pulled up to the pump. For some reason, my pump kept shutting off even before I started pumping gas. I told the lady waiting in line behind me what the problem was and marched up to the kiosk window. The attendant came out and fiddled with the pump and got it to start pumping complaining about it the whole time. 

I finished filling and the same lady was still waiting. I waved to her and drove off. As I was in the HEB pumps, and even though I had not planned on it, I figured I should get a few groceries especially wine as my stock was nonexistent. I was also out of a few other things as well, like food… 

HEB is right next to Starbucks, or is it the other way around? To me, it made no difference as I pulled in for my usual Latte and then started the drive back to Henly. By now, nearly all the frost had disappeared with only the occasional patch in some shady areas. I stopped at Tractor Supply hoping to find a couple of gauges for the Propane tanks, but they had run out, so I continued down the road. Traffic was light and we made good time arriving back to two very excited little dogs. 

They helped to put the groceries away as they usually do, and we harnessed up to take that final walk of the day. I had not been in the house for 5 minutes when I heard a click and the refrigerator and a couple of other things burst into life meaning that the electricity was back on. Luckily, I had not hooked up the Jeep yet, meaning that I did not have to. 

Pleased at the turn of events, we took another short walk around the park before returning to a warm and cozy RV. The TV even came on right at the spot I had been working on when it went off yesterday. The thing is that although there is a picture, there is no sound. Something else to mess around with. 

I answered a couple of emails and discovered, much to my dismay, that I had missed a day in posting the blog. The lack of a computer for a couple of days really wrecked my posting schedule and I had been running it close anyway. I went to work on finishing the last couple of days and added some ice pictures I had taken and then posted them changing my routine from posting poetry on Saturdays to posting the blog instead. That will give me time to play catch up. 

With the blog in a reasonable condition again, I called it a day and went to bed. 

Written 02/03/2023. Read my other blog at https://Pondblog2011.com