Calendrical New Year's Eve

Was busy last night and this morning, getting some Christmas cards done. This morning was partly spent writing up a letter about the past few years, with some edited variations depending on who was getting it. 2006 was apparently not a good year for a variety of reasons, most of which L and I both seem to have forgotten. That was the year I couldn't seem to find things or get anything done for Fall Festival and ended up pulling out of my booth spot (although I did manage to do it in time for them to get some friends of mine in, Chena River Marblers). Winter 2007 was surgery recuperation time, so only a handful of cards went out. This year December's been a little more exciting than usual, but since we moved and many folks didn't have our new address or even know we'd moved I wanted to send out some cards and letters. Even though we've been cutting down on paper mail, sometimes it's nice to send or receive a material message :)

A sign of how crazy 2006 was? Some of the cards we received were never opened. So, we're now caught up on some folks' lives from two years ago, and I'll be saving some of the cards for re-use in future times. Some of the artwork is so pretty or fun that it seems a shame they only get used once; my plan is to cut off the fronts and paste them onto fresh cardstock. I'll need new envelopes of course, but I usually have extra around because of making cards to sell.

We mailed a bunch out today at lunch and I might try to get a few more out Friday or Saturday.

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It's finally stopped snowing, but there's still a severe weather alert here until 6pm. We had been thinking about going down the hill to see Jeni and the dance troupe she's with, but will probably not go :(

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While we were in town to go the post office, we also walked next door to get a bottle of BBC's Steel Rail Pale Ale, as well as a six-pack of Sam Adam's Winter Lager to try out.

Then we stopped in at the hardware store but the ladies are on vacation. So we went into Country Pie Pizza for a bit of lunch. We're not eating pizza for a few weeks, but they make salads, grinders, wraps, and some really greats soups or sometimes chili (I like the veggie chili better than the meat one -- it has lots of different types of beans in it as well as the veggies).

The guys there presented us with their Customer of the Year award! Apparently we were quite successful in our efforts to support our local businesses :D It's pretty amazing actually -- a certificate that should cover quite a few meals. That about floored us, for sure.

And they also let us know that there's a New Year's Eve party at Elmer's, starting at 9:00 p.m. tonight. If we're awake, we should be able to make it to that at least.

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Wishing All A Happy New Year!

May you have good health, good friends, and good times. And if there are hard times too, may you find the adaptability, strength and support you need to handle them.

Life Experience Meme

Murf. Got this from flidaisairmid

( meme )

Apparently I have just slightly above average life experience for people in my age group. OTOH, there are some things in there that I'm just as happy not to have done...

Attitude toward being prepared - very mildly ranty

I know I'm just preaching to the choir here, but I'm feeling just a wee ranty. Was just reading some comments on someone else's blog about being prepared for potential disasters -- natural ones like the recent ice storm or economic ones like losing one's job. One person commented on all the various names she's been called, and "pessimist" was probably the strangest one. It's her favorite "You are such a pessimist! All gloom and doom! Never any hope!" -- as if, she said, being prepared were a disease.

How silly is that, that being prepared should make folks like her or me considered to be a bit touched in the head. Keeping more than a week's worth of food (assuming one has the space) was commonsense when I was a kid. My in-laws buy some things regularly (perishables like milk), but have a freezer full of food just like my mom did. Having the freezer full meant that when we lost power for a few days that most everything stayed frozen, thank you. She even has food that she can't eat herself because for health reasons. Why? Because she likes to be able to entertain unexpected guests. So she keeps some tasty quickbreads like zucchini, carrot, and pumpkin breads in the freezer just in case. We defrosted one on Sunday of the power outage in fact, as part of a rather tasty lunch together, enjoying each other's company.

Just read a news article this afternoon about how all the police in Atlanta are now on furlough. They got a 10% pay cut as of the day after Christmas, so everyone will be taking one day off every other week. So even the most "recession-proof" jobs aren't completely proof. Now there's some doom and gloom for you, if you aren't prepared, have your cards maxed out or maybe a big mortgage or an equity loan on the house.

And yesterday I went through Yang-style Tai Chi 24-form three times in a row. It's a relatively gentle exercise but between that and some yoga exercises I discovered just how tight some muscles are and also that I need to wear a knee brace for Tai Chi, at least for now.

I talk about being prepared here on my LJ now and again, and for sure we found out what worked a few weeks ago. One thing I hadn't really thought about was how much more work physically it was than I thought it would be. And thank goodness I didn't have to do the heaviest stuff! But on the good side of things, it's gotten me back into practicing Tai Chi, and that's a good thing.

If I want to live longer than my dad did, I need get in better shape -- something I've been doing right along, but the ice storm and reading about what's happening to other folks has definitely boosted that desire to a higher level. And also the desire to buy less, which I guess is too bad for the retailers (estimate is 148,000 stores closing in the U.S. in 2008), but I like having manageable debt thanks.

Still, I like my internet and my electricity, yes I do. I may use less than a lot of other people, but I do like having it and intend to keep it, thank you very much. But modern 'conveniences' make it easy to get lazy about some things, for sure.

There are many good things about being "prepared" that I don't consider to be at all negative -- more exercise = better health. And because I'm doing more stuff around the farm, I get to do it without going to a gym, saving money. Although if I had no idea what I was doing, I'd probably go to the gym to learn some things first -- all the weight training I do are things I was trained in first. Same with the Tai Chi -- and I'm happy to say that in repeating the form I could tell I was improving each time, even with the knee giving me grief.

Actually, even knowing what the current limits are on my activities is a positive for mePreparedness aside, being in better shape means being able to do more fun stuff! It means not running out of energy as quickly, whether for getting some more wood or water, hiking Mount Sugarloaf for a picnic, checking out the latest museum exhibit, walking to classes at Pennsic, or staying up partying on New Year's Eve.

Other positives to prepping -- food, shelter, and power security. CDC recommends having 12 weeks' worth of food on-hand, and plenty of water and/or a good filtration system (seriously, who could fit 12 weeks' worth of water in their home?). That's a worst-case scenario for a pandemic, but look at something like a large-scale disaster like Hurricane Katrina? Or how about Gustav this past summer? Mind you, if your home is completely washed out to sea those food supplies won't do much good -- hence the bugout kits some folks recommend, which should have 3-days of supplies. We've already seen that FEMA, although they did a lot better this summer, can't get food and water to everyone who's in trouble.

Of course it would be pretty hard to fit 12 week's worth of food into a lot of people's homes, but I think a month's worth should be quite do-able. Might have to get creative, and it probably won't all fit in the kitchen and pantry, at least not if you lived in a place like one house I rented with some folks many years ago. Three of us, not sharing any supplies, had a third of the fridge and freezer and about 4 shelves in the rather small pantry. I was a starving student in those days, but I did manage to keep the shelves and fridge filled. Whole chickens were .49/lb that year, and boy did I learn how to cut them up and use every bit, including using the bones and scraps to make a very tasty soup. None of us stored water though -- in part because bottled water wasn't as much of a thing back in the 80s. If we'd gotten a serious storm warning while I was living there I just would have done what my mom always did -- fill the biggest pots and the pitchers with water, as well as the bath tub (you need a good plug or rubber cover seal).

Unemployment benefits have a limited lifespan if you lose your job or are given fewer hours. Some extra vittles are nice then, too.

Preparedness, whether it's getting in better shape or having some extra lighting, blankets, food and water set aside, paying down one's debts, putting money in the bank, or whatever, is all about having a positive and sane attitude. And you know, having the candles and oil lamps makes it easier to set up a romantic dinner or two as well ;)