Yes, I did want to update this blog daily this year if I could, with the exception of Sundays. Yes, I didn't update on Wednesday. Yes, I'm going to backdate this entry to fill it the gap.
So what happened?
In Connecticut, we broke our record for the greatest amount of snow in a 24-hour period when 18-24 inches (depending on location) fell around the state, with some places totaling 30 inches altogether. At my home, we got an even 20.
My son went out playing in the snow with my mother. I didn't take my daughter out at all, but she's going out in it today now that the driveway is plowed out. See, yesterday, the snow was as high as she was and there was simply no place for her to walk!
How did we weather the storm? Well, I always keep a good supply of food on hand, because my area is sufficiently rural that going out to the store all the time is a real pain. Our power went out, but my electric company deserves great praise for fixing it pretty promptly. They had trucks out within an hour and fixed the problem an hour and a half after it went out. This is good for us, because we have no source of heat that is not electric-dependent. We have an oil furnace that is lit, not by pilot light, but by electric spark.
Our gorgeous little bi-level doesn't really have room for a woodstove, or you'd better believe I would have one in this house. I know how to deal with woodstoves. I grew up with one. Unfortunately, we are going to have to find some other method by which to (someday) heat our home when the power goes out. I believe our best bet now is to find a generator, as that would give us water as well.
Showing posts with label energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label energy. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wealth
It's that time of year again. I watched the enormous truck back into the driveway. My son watched in fascination as a man with a thick, greying beard connected the pipe. Within minutes, our oil tank downstairs displayed its little floater at the top of the gauge, and I was writing out a check. We fill our oil tank twice a year, once around November and once around March. Of course, living in the northern hemisphere in a cold-winter area, we use significantly more oil in the winter months. But that's hardly my point today.
I always get a thrill from filling the oil tank. It's the same thrill I get after a good grocery shopping session, in which there have been a lot of good sales and I have filled my cart. It's the thrill I get when the church giveaway room has several outfits out for the taking, all the right sizes for my children. I simply love having Plenty.
This isn't just an odd quirk of mine, mind you. It's a pretty common human condition. In Western Society, we have the curious desire for sparser homes and thinner women. Throughout history, the cultures have trended in the exact opposite direction, probably because wealth was not nearly as common as it is in the present day. Consider the example of the needy taking pictures of soup kitchens on their cell phones. We hardly understand what poverty really is anymore. I can't claim to truly understand it either. Even when we haven't known if we could fill that oil tank again, we've still had a weathertight house and the expectation that nobody is likely to destroy it in war or for spite anytime soon.
I like to focus on and enjoy the simplest and truest types of wealth. Recently, my family and I sang for a Salvation Army coffeehouse. One of the workers there found out that I have a baby girl and offered me some free diapers. I hesitated, automatically saying what I usually say in similar situations. We'd love the help, and I'll definitely use anything we're given, but I'm sure there are others in more need than us and they should probably be aided first. My mother told me on the drive home that we are in fact 'salt of the earth humble' and probably not much less in need than the other families in that area.
This surprised me, to be sure. In my reckoning, we're doing pretty well. Sure, you can look at us as a family who can't yet afford to replace the carpet as it wears thin, we're basically one major car repair away from disaster, and it would be nice to have enough money in the bank to replace a major appliance should it suddenly die. However, I tend to look at the plenty. I look at the pantry piled high with consumables, the lovely big yard, the clothing so plentiful that we can afford to toss pilly t-shirts and holed socks...
...and the filled oil tank, ready to give us heat and hot water all winter long.
Last year, it was only the sudden dip in oil prices that allowed us to fill that tank at all. We're in better shape this year, thanks to the mortgage refinancing done before Obama's plans made the process nearly impossible for anyone who hasn't missed a payment. My baby's hospital bills are all paid off, and we're starting to put money back into savings.
Still, I'm never going to take a filled oil tank for granted again.
I always get a thrill from filling the oil tank. It's the same thrill I get after a good grocery shopping session, in which there have been a lot of good sales and I have filled my cart. It's the thrill I get when the church giveaway room has several outfits out for the taking, all the right sizes for my children. I simply love having Plenty.
This isn't just an odd quirk of mine, mind you. It's a pretty common human condition. In Western Society, we have the curious desire for sparser homes and thinner women. Throughout history, the cultures have trended in the exact opposite direction, probably because wealth was not nearly as common as it is in the present day. Consider the example of the needy taking pictures of soup kitchens on their cell phones. We hardly understand what poverty really is anymore. I can't claim to truly understand it either. Even when we haven't known if we could fill that oil tank again, we've still had a weathertight house and the expectation that nobody is likely to destroy it in war or for spite anytime soon.
I like to focus on and enjoy the simplest and truest types of wealth. Recently, my family and I sang for a Salvation Army coffeehouse. One of the workers there found out that I have a baby girl and offered me some free diapers. I hesitated, automatically saying what I usually say in similar situations. We'd love the help, and I'll definitely use anything we're given, but I'm sure there are others in more need than us and they should probably be aided first. My mother told me on the drive home that we are in fact 'salt of the earth humble' and probably not much less in need than the other families in that area.
This surprised me, to be sure. In my reckoning, we're doing pretty well. Sure, you can look at us as a family who can't yet afford to replace the carpet as it wears thin, we're basically one major car repair away from disaster, and it would be nice to have enough money in the bank to replace a major appliance should it suddenly die. However, I tend to look at the plenty. I look at the pantry piled high with consumables, the lovely big yard, the clothing so plentiful that we can afford to toss pilly t-shirts and holed socks...
...and the filled oil tank, ready to give us heat and hot water all winter long.
Last year, it was only the sudden dip in oil prices that allowed us to fill that tank at all. We're in better shape this year, thanks to the mortgage refinancing done before Obama's plans made the process nearly impossible for anyone who hasn't missed a payment. My baby's hospital bills are all paid off, and we're starting to put money back into savings.
Still, I'm never going to take a filled oil tank for granted again.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Energy Planning
I was on a political forum and the subject turned to electricity. After hearing us shoot down the current efforts of liberals and environmentalists to give us cleaner power by forcing us to accept their methods and proposals, one person asked if we had an energy policy to offer rather than just criticisms. I happen to have one, so I wrote it out for them.
The important thing to realize is that everybody WANTS clean, inexpensive, plentiful power. The only reason why coercion has to be involved to make it work currently is because what the environmentalists keep proposing is simply currently unfeasible. (Hybrid cars, for instance, don't even have the gas economy of a simple stripped-down 15-year-old station wagon.) What we have to do is take the shackles off.
Drill drill drill! Though it would be nice if we were independent of all other countries oil-wise, it isn't really necessary. We have two reasons for drilling NOW. First, we want to get in enough oil to stop buying altogether from countries like Saudi Arabia, freeing us in matters of economic diplomacy to criticize their barbarism the same way we do places like Iraq.
Second, right now I'm seeing in the news that Iran and Russia are scaling back on military operations and buildup because the price of oil is low enough to starve out their economies. We want that. We want them in a position where they have to focus on their economy and not on making themselves big and strong. We can turn coal into oil with technology we've had since WWII and make it profitable at $35/barrel. We have the biggest coal reserves in the WORLD. That injection into the worldwide oil community would really throw prices off.
Note: I haven't said we have to fulfill ALL our oil needs ourselves. It would be nice to do if we can. But it's most important just to get us away from depending on people who "don't like us very much". It would also be nice to work the market against them, forcing them to reduce their military operations without having to fire a single shot!
Of course, there's more to it than just getting more oil out. I favor reducing our oil and coal usage by switching as much of the electrical grid as possible over to nuclear. Nuclear power is safe and effective. It's been proven by now. I think all hospitals over a certain "podunk town" size should have their own mini-nuclear generator as well. If nobody else knows how to do it, they can go ask Electric Boat, who powers submarines so safely that one sub recently crashed full speed head-on... and the mini nuclear reactor didn't even have a single problem.
Lower restrictions on vehicle manufacture. Yes, we need to know that you can survive a crash at 40mph. You don't need 50 different airbags, power windows/locks, A/C, or cruise control to do it, and all of those things weigh down a car. Actually, I would like to see enough restrictions lowered or removed for any handyman to build his own vehicle capable of passing standards and being given a license plate. You'd see plenty of fuel economy and alternate-fueled engines popping up in even greater quantity than they do now. Some of them may become commercially viable.
Save the oil for our vehicles (including airplanes) and use nuclear for our stationary electricity. Keep the prices down. That will in turn keep the prices of goods down (transportation) and the people will have more of their own money to spend.
Why is this important? Because friends and family of mine are ALREADY eying geothermal and/or solar enhancements to their house. They already want this. Why don't many of them have it? Well, right now, since the price of food went up, this household has no money to spare each month and a solar setup costs $12,000 to start.
Sure, the price isn't quite enough to offset the energy savings in money yet, but there are other reasons to want solar. For instance, in an area where winter storms knock out electricity, it's AWFULLY nice to have heat and running water in the home. None of that matters, though, if you can't afford to put the system in, and taking even more money away from the people to government-spend on doing it is not nearly as efficient as removing the artificial economic restraints that keep people from doing it themselves.
Nobody needed to be forced to adopt flat-panel TV's, DVD players, designer jeans, or Lexus's. Nobody needs to be forced to adopt personal alternate-energy systems. Just make them affordable, by lowering the cost of living and/or the cost of the product. Once the market gets out of Teh Elites and into the middle class, you won't need to pay anybody to find a way to produce a cheaper and more effective system, either! A 40" 1080p HDTV cost $3,000 a couple of years ago. This holiday season it's dropped below $1,000.
To summarize: We didn't get into cleaner and more efficient oil-burning by forcing people to limit their wood-burning usage, and we won't get into nuclear/wind/solar by forcing people to limit their oil usage. We'll do it by being prosperous enough to afford the Next Step. In the process, as an extra bonus, we may be able to turn the tables on the unfriendly countries who currently have us, as my husband so neatly puts it, 'by the short and curlies'.
The important thing to realize is that everybody WANTS clean, inexpensive, plentiful power. The only reason why coercion has to be involved to make it work currently is because what the environmentalists keep proposing is simply currently unfeasible. (Hybrid cars, for instance, don't even have the gas economy of a simple stripped-down 15-year-old station wagon.) What we have to do is take the shackles off.
Drill drill drill! Though it would be nice if we were independent of all other countries oil-wise, it isn't really necessary. We have two reasons for drilling NOW. First, we want to get in enough oil to stop buying altogether from countries like Saudi Arabia, freeing us in matters of economic diplomacy to criticize their barbarism the same way we do places like Iraq.
Second, right now I'm seeing in the news that Iran and Russia are scaling back on military operations and buildup because the price of oil is low enough to starve out their economies. We want that. We want them in a position where they have to focus on their economy and not on making themselves big and strong. We can turn coal into oil with technology we've had since WWII and make it profitable at $35/barrel. We have the biggest coal reserves in the WORLD. That injection into the worldwide oil community would really throw prices off.
Note: I haven't said we have to fulfill ALL our oil needs ourselves. It would be nice to do if we can. But it's most important just to get us away from depending on people who "don't like us very much". It would also be nice to work the market against them, forcing them to reduce their military operations without having to fire a single shot!
Of course, there's more to it than just getting more oil out. I favor reducing our oil and coal usage by switching as much of the electrical grid as possible over to nuclear. Nuclear power is safe and effective. It's been proven by now. I think all hospitals over a certain "podunk town" size should have their own mini-nuclear generator as well. If nobody else knows how to do it, they can go ask Electric Boat, who powers submarines so safely that one sub recently crashed full speed head-on... and the mini nuclear reactor didn't even have a single problem.
Lower restrictions on vehicle manufacture. Yes, we need to know that you can survive a crash at 40mph. You don't need 50 different airbags, power windows/locks, A/C, or cruise control to do it, and all of those things weigh down a car. Actually, I would like to see enough restrictions lowered or removed for any handyman to build his own vehicle capable of passing standards and being given a license plate. You'd see plenty of fuel economy and alternate-fueled engines popping up in even greater quantity than they do now. Some of them may become commercially viable.
Save the oil for our vehicles (including airplanes) and use nuclear for our stationary electricity. Keep the prices down. That will in turn keep the prices of goods down (transportation) and the people will have more of their own money to spend.
Why is this important? Because friends and family of mine are ALREADY eying geothermal and/or solar enhancements to their house. They already want this. Why don't many of them have it? Well, right now, since the price of food went up, this household has no money to spare each month and a solar setup costs $12,000 to start.
Sure, the price isn't quite enough to offset the energy savings in money yet, but there are other reasons to want solar. For instance, in an area where winter storms knock out electricity, it's AWFULLY nice to have heat and running water in the home. None of that matters, though, if you can't afford to put the system in, and taking even more money away from the people to government-spend on doing it is not nearly as efficient as removing the artificial economic restraints that keep people from doing it themselves.
Nobody needed to be forced to adopt flat-panel TV's, DVD players, designer jeans, or Lexus's. Nobody needs to be forced to adopt personal alternate-energy systems. Just make them affordable, by lowering the cost of living and/or the cost of the product. Once the market gets out of Teh Elites and into the middle class, you won't need to pay anybody to find a way to produce a cheaper and more effective system, either! A 40" 1080p HDTV cost $3,000 a couple of years ago. This holiday season it's dropped below $1,000.
To summarize: We didn't get into cleaner and more efficient oil-burning by forcing people to limit their wood-burning usage, and we won't get into nuclear/wind/solar by forcing people to limit their oil usage. We'll do it by being prosperous enough to afford the Next Step. In the process, as an extra bonus, we may be able to turn the tables on the unfriendly countries who currently have us, as my husband so neatly puts it, 'by the short and curlies'.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Do-Nothing Democrats
The oil situation in my country is mirrored neatly by the water situation in my town, and the crux of the problem lies with the same people: the Democrats who are in charge.
My town is currently under an extreme water shortage. Residents are not allowed to water their lawns, wash their cars, or even water their vegetable gardens. Luckily, the last hasn't been too terrible, because this was the fourth wettest July on record, and June was also considerably wetter than normal. The rain has soaked the ground, filling streams nearly to overflowing. Every time it rains, as it's doing today, there are flood watches across the state. Half the time, they turn into flood warnings in one area or another.
Does this sound contradictory? It should. The United States is sitting on a wealth of oil, and my town is sitting on a wealth of water. So why are prices high? Why is my town under water restriction of the highest order?
One of the town wells broke down and has not been repaired. Another one was taken offline, I'm not sure exactly why, leaving only one well to service the entire area. The people voted into charge of my town are overwhelmingly Democrat, as our Congress currently has Democratic control of both houses, and they have not repaired either of the two wells in reserve nor sought to drill a third. We have a reservoir in town, kept off-limits and unused. There was some talk in a town meeting half a year ago of opening the reservoir to supplement the single well, but it has not yet happened.
The local Democrats have, however, secured a multi-million grant from the state in order to vastly reduce the debt we are about to take on in purchasing a large area of recreational forest. It's a very pretty property and, once the lead cleanup finishes and a large-scale poison ivy eradication effort is undertaken, may even be safe to visit.
The Congressional Democrats have turned out the lights on the Republicans, who are even now standing in the dark telling the Democrats and the rest of the country that the working poor need to be able to get to work and keep their houses warm in the upcoming winter.
I think we need some Republicans at my town hall telling the Democrats that their citizens need water.
My town is currently under an extreme water shortage. Residents are not allowed to water their lawns, wash their cars, or even water their vegetable gardens. Luckily, the last hasn't been too terrible, because this was the fourth wettest July on record, and June was also considerably wetter than normal. The rain has soaked the ground, filling streams nearly to overflowing. Every time it rains, as it's doing today, there are flood watches across the state. Half the time, they turn into flood warnings in one area or another.
Does this sound contradictory? It should. The United States is sitting on a wealth of oil, and my town is sitting on a wealth of water. So why are prices high? Why is my town under water restriction of the highest order?
One of the town wells broke down and has not been repaired. Another one was taken offline, I'm not sure exactly why, leaving only one well to service the entire area. The people voted into charge of my town are overwhelmingly Democrat, as our Congress currently has Democratic control of both houses, and they have not repaired either of the two wells in reserve nor sought to drill a third. We have a reservoir in town, kept off-limits and unused. There was some talk in a town meeting half a year ago of opening the reservoir to supplement the single well, but it has not yet happened.
The local Democrats have, however, secured a multi-million grant from the state in order to vastly reduce the debt we are about to take on in purchasing a large area of recreational forest. It's a very pretty property and, once the lead cleanup finishes and a large-scale poison ivy eradication effort is undertaken, may even be safe to visit.
The Congressional Democrats have turned out the lights on the Republicans, who are even now standing in the dark telling the Democrats and the rest of the country that the working poor need to be able to get to work and keep their houses warm in the upcoming winter.
I think we need some Republicans at my town hall telling the Democrats that their citizens need water.
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