I have trouble just focusing on football at a time like this. But I'll blend it in, ok?
It feels like at least half the people I know are without power and/or water. I have water but no power. A pipe was frozen Monday morning and I was able to unfreeze it. It felt like a playoff victory.
I wasn't born here but got here as fast as I could. My first foray into inclement Texas weather was a massive flood-causing thunderstorm in November of 2002. I had just gotten out of a Dom Capers' Monday press conference and experienced what attempting to drive around in instant ponds, lakes and rivers was like.
We've had hurricanes aplenty since then. Rita followed Katrina, which obviously was mostly a New Orleans issue but we all know that so many evacuees came here and a large number went to the Astrodome. I'll never forget the Texans busses pulling in from our 4th preseason (road) game and seeing throngs of people on the NRG campus.
Rita saw the gargantuan gridlock of everyone trying to escape the city prior to what was a Houston 'miss,' as that hurricane went east. Everyone stayed home for Ike but that one hit point blank and created a catastrophe. The Texans schedule was adjusted to accommodate a bye week early.
And we all remember Harvey way too well. Plus, there was the Tax Day flood, The Memorial Day flood and countless other unnamed storms that have been brutal.
This deep freeze is quite different. I've lived in mid-Michigan and felt zero degree conditions for days. I never thought I'd feel this cold in Texas. It feels like the planet suddenly tilted in the wrong direction.
We're tough and we'll power through it. I'm trying to lend a hand where possible. People have been unbelievably kind to me and my family. I hear far too many horror stories about what's happening around the region.
We'll talk football soon enough. I'd say it's on the back burner but I have an electric stove. Yes, it's always on my mind. But we need to have more important huddles right now.
