reissue: volume 37 - half & half
reliving a week from hell
every now and then i’ll reissue an old volume to go back down memory lane. it’s wild to think about as Run It Back comes up on 3 years! you can see how the format of the newsletter and my voice have evolved over time
today we’re revisiting the infamous Texas freeze and how we experienced it in Austin close to 2 years ago. the format is different than normal, as we still have a 4 song playlist but the entries are in a diary format chronicling how the week progressed
this is trauma bonding at scale. enjoy :)
Hellish time for myself and other Texans last week. Thank you Max for holding it down, I aspire to be as good of a writer as you one day. Turns out I needed your coverage more than ever. [1/24/23 editor’s note: the homie Max did a community feature the week prior]
Austin experienced 6 straight days (on the dot) of sub-freezing temperatures. It was quarantining on hard mode. The songs today are tracks that got me through the week with a brief diary of what being stuck at home was like.
I’m still on the fence on what’s worse: Stuck inside because of the smoke or stuck inside because of the cold.
If you want to help Austinites that need it the most, you can help by donating to the Austin Area Urban League. They empower and assist African Americans and underserved Austin-area residents to achieve societal and economic equality.
And with that, let’s get to the music for the week.
- claudio / claud / @offballscreen
P.S. - I highly recommend this episode of the Reply All podcast: The Case of the Missing Hit. It was a brief respite for us as temperatures tanked with no power. I loved the depths of their determination to find an obscure song from the late 90s. Please hit my line if you end up listening to it.
this week’s music ⤵️
Half & Half
Playboi Carti
Released: 2017
Friday, 2/12 - Apparently, no one shops at Randall’s (which is the equivalent of Safeway in some regions). HEB is king out here.
I learned this from the Austin subreddit and stocked up on essentials because no one really knew how bad it would be. Thank the lord I listened to my anxiety.
5’s and 6’s
Payroll Giovanni & Cardo
Released: 2018
Tuesday, 2/16 - Before we lost power last Monday, I tried to soak up all the content I could by watching hella TV and cooking warm meals while we still could.
What we weren’t prepared for was how cold it’d get inside. It was creeping below 50 at certain points and we didn’t even have it that bad. There were reports of others hitting sub-freezing inside their house. We were quarantining like Charlie’s grandparents.
The Magnificent Seven
The Clash
Released: 1980
Wednesday, 2/17 - I never thought I’d learn so much about how water works in a home. The city’s infrastructure generally wasn’t built for this weather so in turn our pipes weren’t either. How the fuck do you deal with a frozen pipe? I had no clue.
Our collective anxiety got the best of us and we decided to turn off the water. This allowed us to stop dripping faucets and rest easy at night. Once we got power back, one of the first things I did was get Max’s newsletter out.
Sassafras Roots
Green Day
Released: 1994
Friday, 2/19 - I never knew how much water we used in the day-to-day operations of our house until we cut it off. We had power, which meant the house was warm, but no water to drink, bathe, or flush toilets. We learned how to boil snow. We washed our hands with water bottles, which made me feel broke and rich at the same time.
Yesterday, everything finally went back to normal. Quarantine hits different after a week like that.
I'd definitely categorize this as "creative non-fiction" because the recap of things you dealt with felt like a story and we all know it really happened.