Well, let me put this this way.
Insulation works both ways. It will keep heat in, as those of us up north know full well, but by the same token, it will keep heat out as well. (which is why those fancy expensive coolers keep ice for a couple of days when you really want a cold beverage.
Or there's the redneck way, where he takes his cooler and sinks it in spooge inside of a Rubbermaid tote, and gets the same dang thing, and he don't need your fancy-ass high-dollar cooler at all.
Or there's the hillbilly way, where he just takes what he needs made cold, puts it in quart jars, and puts the quarts in a cage, and sinks the whole mess in the well, not even needing the things the redneck does.
There's ways and ways. Some are better than others, till they're not.
After that, it is a matter of making sure you have the gadgets to either make heat or remove it inside whatever climate you want controlled. Enough Texans have worked in North Dakota's oil patch to figure out how to keep their treaters from freezing up, even if they rarely face temperatures worse than a spring day here.
Maye true - but what's missing is something you and me know natively... The system WILL fail, and it will fail at the worst possible time. You and me know that intimately, and we are both ready to make do. Now, I ain't been to your place, and I ain't never seen your face. But I make that claim knowing full well I am damn well right. I KNOW you have alt heat. I KNOW you have alt light. You very likely have alt electric too, though that is less important... And you may even have your freezer sitting out on the porch. I KNOW that because of where you are, and that you are alive to push the buttons on your keyboard.
We in the (rural) north do not have the convenience of reliance on the system... ANY system. We have to make do for ourselves. It is a necessity here. Them Texans that have drifted north - And I too know that happens... I have punched cows with Texans - Them Texans likely have learned to live in the north and know how... But they drift on south again and find it ain't a worry... So even with the knowledge, they don't assemble the possibles needed, which is the same dang thing as being without the knowledge altogether.
That's the thing, right there. I don't think it's an hubris. There ain't a NEED down there, but merely a caution... So they get caught with their pants down. Hopefully the after-action realization will prepare them for the next go around. And foremost in that is the realization of reality: The system WILL fail, and it WILL FAIL at the worst imaginable time. Texas has to learn to make do again.
And I say that a bit too flippantly - I know that many WERE ready and DID make do - Likely all of em out on the farm and out of the city, or shop-dawgs and blue collar in the city... I would like an after-action thread where Texans note what worked and what didn't, and how they can better withstand alone - That thread would be interesting.
And mobedda that than whining about fat cats and how they let everyone down (which should just be presumed in the first place). There is an education to be had, and you will find that after-action story-telling all the time up in here... Which helps folks get a plan, and implement changes.
At some point a question of being cheap and maybe a dash of hubris come into play. Even here, when the weather hits -30 (static air), some things don't work. You won't know for certain they will until they do under those conditions, and the best laid plans of mice and men... Still, the effort is made, and generally successful because it IS made, even if it costs a bit more, because here, as we well know, failure is not an option, especially when you have to thaw the ground bury folks. The knowledge is there, there is historical precedent for such temperatures there, and it's folly to think it won't happen again, ever. But humans tend to forget quickly, move on, reestablish their normalcy bias, and not learn one thing from history, instead of being ready for next time.
That's all right. I had a bit of that when I lost power up in here for what was supposed to be four days. A vicious wind came through annd turned the woods into pixie sticks and blew down a whole lot of what was above ground (medium-duty transmission and lesser)... My own systems didn't fail - I largely didn't use them anymore than I usually do... But I found a gaping flaw in my intermediate preparedness... Too much work to haul out everything, so I figured to power through the night and worry about it tomorrow in the daylight... Power came back on during the night, and I was alright all the way along, because I had the possibles. But the comfort was less than I would expect.
So I am going to work on intermediate systems (heavy investment into rechargeables, UPS and power stations, and LED lighting, as an instance), and make it far easier to engage fail-over systems... Because living through a night with no internet, cell set to full-sip, reading L'amour by headlamp was not fun enough.
So yeah, even experienced folks have room for improvement, always. I ain't throwing stones. I am leaning into solar, and batteries as a part of that intermediacy too, so I don't need the jeny as fast. Maybe four hours or so... and that augments when I DO need the jenny, because I can charge up the batts and shut it off again. A MASSIVE non-critical hole was found... and I do aim to patch it up.
As for when the caldera pops, well, some things we don't have much experience with, considering it's been a while since the last time. The last super volcano event (for certain) reduced the humans to a real genetic bottleneck (Toba), and if the Minoans were eliminated by such, may well have spawned the legends of Atlantis (there is always a grain of truth in legends). If that happens, well, aside from going north and east and being geared up for -40 weather in July, I'm not sure what will work, and even if that will--we might have enough ridges between here and there, and the low pressure system generated by the release of heat will likely suck arctic air to where we are. Most past ash falls have been mostly to the southwest of this area, although I expect wed get some--kinda like with Mt. St Helens, and ruin engines on the way out of here, because the clear cold air would be coming in out of Northern Canada before the major ash fall began. That's all theory we have no experience with, unlike winter at this latitude, which, as I said, a lot of Texans have had experience with.
I used a volcano ad-absurdum... I was grasping for something a feller would not be ready for up in here. And to describe the idea that some things are just bigger than you can plan for. SHTF down there in Texas, bigger and badder than anyone figured on, and when the system got put to the test, it fell down. That ain't no surprise in an extraordinary circumstance... And that was what I was getting at - Shifting focus from being upset that the system failed, to a necessary awareness of a need for self-reliance. That was my point.
