Cold in Texas

From my office here in Borger I can look out the window and see the bank sign across the street. It reads: 9:52 2◦ F – That’s cold. I waited until daylight to drive to work and I am very glad I did. From Panhandle, Texas over to Borger is a distance of twenty four miles. Most of the way I was driving in whiteout conditions. I saw the road often enough to stay on it, but not much more.


There is not really very much snow but what is here is blowing around in a 30-40 mph wind. There is no cover anywhere in the open plain and I prayed for Victoria’s car like I have never prayed before. To get stranded in the heat of the summer would be uncomfortable but to get stranded on this cold would be fatal. But God is good and I made it here safely.

I have to admit that I could get used to these hours, but it will only be for a day – at least until God allows me to start a business of our own where I can pick the hours. Someday… Anyway, the sun is coming out and we expect the temp to get all the way up to 8◦ F or so. Tomorrow we will shoot all the way up into the double digits. By Thursday the highs will be near 50◦, and we wonder why it is so hard to recover from a respiratory infection.

I have to keep reminding myself that even though this is Texas, we are more closely aligned geographically with Oklahoma and New Mexico and only a distance from Kansas. For that reason, our weather is the same as theirs, and that is kind of nice. The hardest thing to get used to is the dryness. Overall, this is the least humidity we have ever had in any of the locations we have ever lived. That has its blessings, but it is something we are not acclimated to yet so we suffer occasionally from bloody noses and always from extremely dry skin. It drives Mama crazy.

We took in the bird feeder last night since the predictions were for several inches of snow. As I was getting ready to leave this morning Mama had me put it back out because the sparrows were pecking through the snow-dusted grass to find seed. As soon as I had re-hung it and backed out of the yard they came to feed. Mama was relieved.

There is not much variety in the birds here, especially right now. Only the heartiest species can tolerate the current conditions. Even in the nicest weather, this is not a song bird paradise. We left that behind in West Virginia.