#no heating

Pros:

you gain so much cold resistance, every temperature above zero will feel warm

you can keep your groceries on the counter and they will last as if they are in the fridge

since all your groceries are visible to you, you remember to use them and nothing goes bad

your plants will not dry out quickly and you rarely have to water them

if you brought in some evergreen foliage to decorate and you put it in water, it will look fresh for months

warm soup and tea feel extremely good; holding a warm cup or bowl feels heavenly

you are very in touch with the weather and the humidity levels outside

you're feeling good for saving energy and being adaptable to nature

Cons:

you don't wanna leave your bed a lot since it's the warmest coziest place you have; if temperatures outside are -10 or lower you can't leave it

the laundry will dry for days. you have to put shirts on hangers and hang them as high as possible in order for them to dry at all

if you wanna make a sourdough bread. it will take 4 days. it's gonna be rising that slow.

some of your plants might not like the cold. my golden pothos is on its last leg.

you don't wanna wash your hair a lot, it's risky to be wet in a cold place

So if you guys don’t know, I live in Texas. If you’ve seen the news, you probably already know what this is going to be about, but this is my update.

Some stuff I found out was that not a lot of people lost power. I live in the east/central part of my city, which is the poorer side. A lot of people from my school lost power, but my friends on the west side didn’t. The highland park area in dallas is probably the richest in the metroplex and they’re fine. Nothing is wrong with their heating or water.Also, there was definitely some bad planning for this storm. Electric companies didn’t mention the power outages until they had started even though they are the ones orchestrating them.

For anyone in the north, midwest, canada, florida, or california who wants to make fun of us, screw you. (i’ve seen a boatload of condescending idiots on tiktok) Obviously we won’t be prepared for this. We have to be ready for hurricanes, humidity, tornadoes, and heat. There’s only so much we can do. For people telling us to go get things, we can’t drive anywhere safely. The roads are all covered in snow and ice. A lot of people don’t have proper jackets because they aren’t necessary here. This was unexpected because last week was literally in the 70s for us.

A few other things y’all don’t seem to understand: our homes don’t have proper insulation, some people only have single pane windows, most homes don’t have basements, generators aren’t common because the power hasn’t gone out in years because of the weather, other states are not having power outages to help us (our power grid is separate from the rest of the south), most people here had less than a 24 hour warning for the storm, we don’t know how to keep warm because most people have never been in this kind of weather their whole lives, the last time we got hit with a storm was 2011 and it wasn’t half as bad. Also, I know for a fact y’all wouldn’t be this rude if another unprepared state was facing this weather. Just cause you don’t like Texas, you’ll use that as an excuse to make fun of people dying of cold here who haven’t done anything to you. I would say that you won’t get any sympathy from me when you guys get weather you can’t handle, but I refuse to stoop to your level.

Thank you to anyone who hasn’t been a pos to Texans this week. There’s not much I can think of to do if you would like to help us. There’s really no way we can get to any resources at this point. Any tips you have on staying warm will be helpful. Just not making fun of us on the internet would be enough.

Below the read more will be specifically what my family did during the storm. I am lucky enough to have moved somewhere with power now, but a lot of people are still stuck in their homes.

So, I said I would do a no-heating challenge this winter, because I have control over heating for the first time, and the results are good! I have adapted to cold to the point where I barely feel it, and even as I had to wear lots of layers and snuggle up in bed all the time, now I'm comfortable in less clothing and with less covers as well. I think that's so cool! For years I've been jealously looking at animals, adapting to cold by growing their fur and needing nothing more - turns out I can adapt too, as long as I'm willing to be uncomfortable first.

Temperatures outside are around zero, bit warmer inside, and I'm comfy. It might get harder if we get to double negatives, I'll find out!

Another thing that helped is I finally gained a bit of weight. This is how I managed to do it: the lady I know who recently moved to the retirement home told me they are getting way more bread than they can eat and asked me if I'd want it, so it doesn't get thrown away. I said yes! So once a week I come visit and she gives me a big bag of bread and little extra packets of margerine. Then I have to eat it before it catches mold so I am eating lots! If I'm feeling fancy I even toast some. I can't say if it's healthy to eat that much bread but it helped me go over the minimal calory intake and my body gained +1 cold resistence! Which is wonderful for my situation.

Since it's cold in my room, it doesn't matter much that I'm not using the fridge, food doesn't go bad. But I do have to say I don't waste anything ever because my groceries are very visible on the counter, and I can't forget I have them since they're not hidden in a cold box.

The only setback is I can't have dried orange slices as a decor this year. I would usually slice an orange and leave it on top of the radiator for the night to dry; nothing dries in the cold room. It would catch mold before properly curing. I was tempted to try wrapping slices in newspapers, but they would stick and I don't wanna waste an orange.

Okay now that we went over fun stuff, I have something I kept from you. I didn't talk about it because it freaked me out. I moved this year into a room that was really nice and I loved it, and the landlady was someone I knew, offering it at an affordable price; it was a lifesaver because I couldn't afford high rent prices on the market. 2 weeks in, things changed and she asked me to move to a different room; a tiny kitchen with a bed and a closet. I had no choice but to do it, and as I did that, it became clear that I wouldn't be able to grow plants in here.

The room is on the northest side, with only one northen window. There is not one ray of sun touching that window, I am in deep shade all day. I tried to grow wheat for the solstice, and it's growing so poorly, almost nothing came out of it. The landlady told me that seedlings and bringing soil in is forbidden; she didn't want a mess. I was gonna cheat. I could hide them somehow, I thought. But it's no use here; there's no light. I'm unsure if seedlings would even germinate in such cold environment, I mean maybe they would! But I won't find out this year.