And I wont moan about the weather in Northern NSW Australia…No snow, enough rain…
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Adjective, not noun.
JF
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Not even as a proper noun? “I am dreich!!!”
Or, maybe, “I am Dreich!!!”
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No, not in common usage, always an adjective.
You could say “I’m feeling a bit dreich” but never “I am dreich”.
Next lesson will be on “dour”, it’s meanings and usage. Stay tuned.
JF
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"Ich bin ein Berliner”?
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I live in the NE US. Dour is the main tribe here. 
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And I bet you don’t pronounce it “dow-er” like I do.
Tonight in Texas, I have friends that are burning 2x4s and scrap from sheds to keep warm. Others have gathered snow (no running water) into a stockpot to put on the fire to increase the humidity so that it feels warmer. And mattresses have been moved into the living room but that’s just the folks with fireplaces who don’t have to sleep in their cars. Silly Texans and their snow days.
Some hospitals in Austin don’t have heat and water. Grocery stores will be out of food because they can’t get delieveries. Much of TX is having a full on disaster sized crisis.
Many homes in central/South TX don’t have fireplaces and many have poor insulation. There are no basements and pipes run through ceilings.
I was thinking today how the lines out to my Airbnb room run briefly through my porch ceiling and could freeze with the kind of extended freeze like central TX had. So if a serious winter storm comes my way I’ll need to cancel any Airbnb booking I have, turn off the lines to that room and drain the lines.
Yep, a buddy of mine is helping evacuate St Davids South, it’s nuts.
Maybe, but it will be brief. That happens a lot up here with the weather but its a quick glitch. Y’all are in better shape for that because so much of the food comes from that way and there’s big warehouses. I doubt you’ll see much drop in supplies other than the hoarding that will likely happen as a reaction to this. I just ordered a big grocery delivery for a friend in Austin that will be delivered tomorrow, spring water and all. Besides, it’s gonna be 68 in a few days there. On the bright side, there should lots of jobs created - repairing stuff ,)
no basements and pipes run through ceilings.
My husband has a funny story about me trying to figure out where the pipes were so that I could wrap them when we first moved to NY. He did not even know what I was talking about.
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It seems to suit my brother, too. He lives there. Well, no, he gets his mail there, at a “suite” somewhere, and it goes on the bus to San Miguel de Allende, where he really lives. 
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Och, noo that’s a word I ken! It goes well with wet, misty places.
We’re in one of the “well-off” areas of Houston (Cinco Ranch) and we lost power - and therefore heat even though we have a natural gas furnace - starting Monday at 8 AM. Finally got power back at 8 am Wednesday, but in the meantime a pipe had burst so we had to shut off the water. We are one of the lucky ones - our home is fairly well insulated (hubby and I grew up in Minnesota/Iowa) and we have a gas fireplace so our house never got too cold - there were reports of homes at 35 degrees inside.
Part of this was a natural “disaster” (too cold for too long) that created extreme demand, part was electrical plants not being robustly protected against cold so supply feel far short of usual, and part was piss-poor management of the electrical grid (even rolling the electricity around every 10 hours would have kept most homes in the 50s which is uncomfortable but not dangerous).
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I have an acquaintance via facebook who lives in a posh area of Houston and they didn’t lose power until yesterday and got it back yesterday sometime. Her feed is full of people suggesting they get some sort of generator at least and probably a whole house system. They also own at least two other homes and usually when bad weather is coming they just take off to another location.
There is going to be plenty of discomfort still as people deal with long lines as stores that get food, getting home repairs done, moving and so on.
One of my former student in Austin’s fiance passed away Sunday at their apartment and my friend committed suicide 36 hours later. Weather may have been a contributing factor as people who knew he was fragile couldn’t get to him. Maybe the timing was just coincidental to the storm but it’s a reminder that these disasters take a hidden toll.
I hope the state will take the steps to improve our infrastructure. Things like one of our senators flying to Mexico for a vacation sends a real “let them eat cake” message. Extensive climate science denial is baked into our system as well. I’m not hopeful that any substantial improvements will be made in time to prevent the next disaster.
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A friend just posted on facebook that the San Antonio hotel his friends are in are running out of food and water. Their flight home keeps getting canceled.
Friend in Ft. Worth hasn’t had power since Monday, still doesn’t and has a notice from the electric company that says if they still don’t have power it’s not due to rolling blackouts it’s something else weather related and they’ll get to it when they get to it.
Ted Cruz just got busted flying to Cancun for a vacation while his constituants freeze to death.
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Yeah, I mentioned that in my post above. He’s flying back today.
I logged in
I logged in just to respond to this. I am typing from Vancouver proper (on the mainland); My igloo has melted. Please send help.
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I know a few people who recently moved to Austin from California and to say the least, they are struggling. Hopefully they figure out that power grid.
I’m hearing the wonderful sound of water dripping from the rain gutters outside my living room. While “officially” I don’t think we got above freezing today, that big yellow orb is doing it’s best to help us out. Everything will refreeze tonight so be careful if you have to go out on the roads tonight or tomorrow morning. We should be getting close to 40 degrees tomorrow so that should help a lot.
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