There is a specific level of chaos required before West Texans consider panicking, and a massive winter storm apparently does not meet the criteria. Roads are iced over, temperatures are frigid, and cars are sliding sideways like they\u2019ve given up on physics altogether…YET…everyone is still driving like they are late to something deeply unimportant.<\/p>\n
When Ice Hits the Road but Not the Ego<\/p>\n
Right now, vehicles are drifting through intersections like it\u2019s a low-budget Fast & Furious sequel, but no one seems interested in slowing down. Not in the least. Instead of adapting to the conditions, West Texans appear to be attempting to overpower the ice through confidence alone. Brake lights are optional, speed limits are treated as suggestions, and every sliding car seems driven by someone thinking, \u201cI\u2019ll be fine, probably.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photo by Michelle Kraemer<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>A Storm We Absolutely Did Not Prepare For<\/p>\n Despite living in a place that experiences extreme weather mood swings, we are once again shocked by the arrival of cold. Heaters are suddenly \u201cacting up,\u201d pipes are being wrapped with whatever towels were already questionable, and everyone is Googling how to stay warm, like this information wasn\u2019t available last year, and the year before that.<\/p>\n Photo by Zane Winter<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>Cold That Feels Personal<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t just cold, it\u2019s the kind that settles into your bones and makes you mad about it. The wind cuts sharper, the air hurts to breathe, and stepping outside feels like a personal attack. Still, people continue to run errands like it\u2019s business as usual, bundled in three layers of resentment. (I am guilty of it too. We are all friggin’ stupid.)<\/p>\n Read More:\u00a0Is Your Car Safer At Home? Texas Theft Data Says No<\/a><\/p>\n The West Texas Response<\/p>\n What\u2019s most impressive is the emotional response, or lack of one. There is no screaming, no mass hysteria, just a collective shrug and a quiet acceptance that this is happening now. Someone grills anyway. Someone wears shorts anyway. Someone loses power, lights a candle, and carries on like a pioneer, or whatever.<\/p>\n Photo by David Nicolai<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>Sliding Through It Together<\/p>\n Cars are spinning, roads are closing, and everyone is wildly underprepared, yet the overall vibe remains calm to the point of concerning. West Texans don\u2019t fight minor disasters. They just endure them, complain a little, and assume it will sort itself out eventually.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll Talk About It Later<\/p>\n When the ice melts and the roads reopen, we\u2019ll laugh about how bad it was. We\u2019ll say it \u201cwasn\u2019t that bad,\u201d even though it absolutely was. That\u2019s the West Texas way. Calm, stubborn, slightly reckless, and somehow still standing, probably in a parking lot, watching another car slide by and thinking, \u201cYeah, that tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n Lubbock’s Most Extreme Weather Records <\/p>\n A look at the most extreme weather records Lubbock has set.<\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Renee Raven<\/p>\n 10 Things That Would Make Lubbock Less Boring<\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Nessmania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a specific level of chaos required before West Texans consider panicking, and a massive winter storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-140142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-lubbock","9":"tag-lubbock-headlines","10":"tag-lubbock-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}