Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Miser Mom: Hurri-came, Hurri-goes

Monday: ?a day spent in anticipation of a Super Storm. ?Early in the day, at least in my area, it was just a bunch of rain, hardly different than other rainfalls. ?I ventured out to the doctors to pick up prescriptions and then meds for my sons -- we'll won't need the meds until Thursday, but I figured I ought to get them before the storm.
Note to my bicycle-rider-wannabe, car-driver-wanna-not-be Self: ?If I just plan a few days more in advance, I can get the docs to mail?me the prescriptions, saving me either a 6-mile bike ride or a 6-mile car drive. ?Plus, in the case of a hurricane, I wouldn't have to decide between(a) venturing out or (b) fretting over running out of our anti-hyper pills while sealed up in a home with two hyper teenagers.
After the meds were safely put into the closet, I spent much of the rest of the day sealed up in my sewing room/home office, playing a lovely, leisurely game of catch-up. ?I'm sure many of my students, colleagues, and friends were doing the same. ?We all declared a giant Time Out in our game of Telephone Tag. ?Classes canceled. ?School suspended. ?Hurriedness on hold. It was, as I wrote this time last year, a gift of obstruction.
Word of the day: ?"hunker". ?I heard it from so many reporters and well-wishers and e-friends, that I started fantasizing about directional hunkering. ?Why is it always "down"? ?Couldn't I hunker up? ?Hunker out? ?Hunker around??
Late in the day, after we ate some of the food that we just happened to have lying around the home, the power went out. ?For how long? ?We didn't know (then). ?We pulled out candles and reassured J-son, who was a little weirded out. ?I'd already stuffed the fridge with gallons and gallons of water, and turned it to its coldest setting, in anticipation of going 5 days without power.
Miser Mom Fantasy of the week: a chest refrigerator. ?I've often toyed with the idea of just getting rid of the fridge altogether, of course. ?It is entirely because of sucking up to my husband and K-daughter that I haven't ditched it. ?But check out this post from "A self-sufficient life", or this one from Mt Best, or this one from Energy Conservation News. ?They all converted a chest freezer to a chest refrigerator and now use 1/8th to 1/10th the energy they used to. ?Plus, if the power goes out during a hurricane, the chest set-up keeps food cold longer, even if you open the door. ?(My neighbor did this experiment the wrong way a few years ago; she accidentally left the lid on her chest freezer open for a week. ?The freezer certainly used more power that way, but all the food was still frozen when she finally discovered her mistake).?
The power came back on an hour or so later, while we were at a friend's home, playing card games by candlelight. ?While other people had dashed out to the grocery store to stock up before the storm, our stocking had mostly been done during the August harvests, and both our houses instead did baking in anticipation of the storm. ?I have two loaves of bread sitting on the counter; my friend's daughter had made cup-cakes. ?Hence, we went to her house.

The worst of Sandy arrived in our area after midnight. ?Howling winds. ?More rain. ?But, since you're reading this, you can see the storm passed over without knocking us out again. ?We'll have to wait until noon for the last of the dangerous winds to leave the area. ?So this morning, we'll continue to hunker down; but this afternoon, I think I'll hunker out-and-about instead.

Source: http://miser-mom.blogspot.com/2012/10/hurri-came-hurri-goes.html

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