"What a week I'm having!"

I was reminded of this repeating line from the Ron Howard film "Splash," in which a scientist played by Eugene Levy keeps having things happen to him, each worse than the last.  Our premise today is that a good many people can and probably have said this in the last seven days.

Let's start with our friends who reside in the state of Texas, where the triple-whammy of extreme and unseasonable cold temperatures, a complete failure of the largely unregulated power grid and subsequent failures of in-home plumbing and municipal water systems have left a large number of the citizens of that state to suffer one issue after another after another.

Last week I checked in with a good friend from college who was my roommate for a couple of years after we both finished school.  He and his wife and kids have lived in greater Houston for over twenty years, and in an exchange of text messages he reported that they were subject to the "rolling" blackouts that some utility officials proclaim saved the Texas power grid.  My friend would disagree, as their electrically heated home was freezing cold for several days.  He included a photo of an ancient stovetop coffee percolator, cracking a characteristic joke about a "prehistoric Keurig" but added that despite following directions to leave a small stream of water running, their pipes froze and burst.  He was fortunate that they were able to contain most of the damage and had already ripped out the carpet and drywall affected.

But think how many people there did not respond as proactively as my friend, and as temperatures have moved closer to normal how mold and mildew have formed in these homes.  But most cannot clean up, because the water systems have also been compromised, to the point where people were heating snow (when they had power) to flush toilets and bathe.  And when water service was restored to many areas affected, the local authorities advised that it be boiled before use.  But you can't do that if you're without power.

And on and on and on.  

The state's public officials have not been visible throughout most of this, with Governor Abbott disappearing from view for several days, and the state's junior Senator, Ted Cruz, leaving the country entirely, claiming he was simply escorting his daughters to Cancun, Mexico for a brief trip.  He eventually came clean and acknowledged his error in judgment, and tried to make amens with a couple of hastily arranged photo opportunities of him distributing relief supplies.

The irony here is delicious, as just a few hours after Cruz and his traveling party departed for Cancun, power was restored to his neighborhood.  I've never liked Cruz, find him disingenuous and self-serving and perhaps the Texas voters who've twice sent him to the Senate are beginning to feel the same.

I noted how preposterous Cruz's actions were to someone and they responded that since he's a legislator that there's not much he can do.  While that may be true, I responded that he could "act like he gives a damn," which he completely failed to do.  To his total detriment.

Cruz's Republican Party cannot seem to decide if they still plan to be the "Party of Trump" or not.  Conflicting signals are everywhere amid the pilgrimage many senior party members are making to south Florida to pay their respects to the former President.  Yesterday, in Senate hearings on the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, at least one Senator continued trying to blame impostors and provocateurs for what happened.  I hate to tell him this, but there's ample video footage of who actually committed these acts.

I'll end this post by briefly mentioning the legendary golfer Tiger Woods, as he experienced a nearly fatal car accident yesterday and needed several hours of emergency surgery for injuries to his right leg and perhaps other injured areas.  Say what you will about Woods, but the golf world has not seen his like in many years and may not again for many more.  One journalist compared him to Halley's Comet, and that seems appropriate.  Wish him a complete recovery, whether golf is in his future or not.

Since the week still has a few days left, I may have more to add later.