The electric companies for mine and neighboring counties keep sending out daily emails asking us not to use the electricity until after 10 pm and in some cases midnight. Yesterday they requested we not use the electricity until 9 pm so some days the restriction is lifted early.
There are so many excuses and equally as many theories as to the real reason we’re in this particular version of mess but what it all boils down to is that they built more homes and did not build more electric company. They are supporting more people than they can so we have to voluntarily give up electricity or suffer rolling blackouts which will affect the refrigerator and a/c units. Peers have suggested i invest in an expensive generator but ive been hesitant to do that for one reason. I think it would be a waste of money. I wouldnt turn it on unless the power was out and if it was running, id want to be home to supervise it and keep fuel in it and id probably need to be at work in a different town when the generator would need to be running. It would make more sense to have a generator if there were two people living here because one could supervise its use while the other worked away from the homestead. For the past few days ive been getting these emails and i havent been able to cook in 4 days. The night before last i stayed up until 10 thinking i could go ahead and cook then. I was so tired all i could do was crawl to the bed. Cooking didnt happen. I also overslept the following morning. I was so tired it made me physically ill to open my eyes. Thats how you know you have to lay back down and get sleep because theres no way you can drive a car in that state, much less instruct a patient. So i slept through the hour i would normally make and eat breakfast during. I threw a frozen banana, some ice, oat milk, and protein powder in the blender and gulped it down at 4:00 am on the way out the door. At 9:30 am scheduling conflicts rendered me patientless and i took my lunch break to eat some week old mashed potatoes topped with avocado and onion salt and some red grapes.
A patient helped me to see that i was doing this all wrong. I needed to buy foods that didnt require heating for a couple months, just until the electric companies stopped threatening rolling blackouts. We brainstormed things to buy for the next week while she exercised. 3 bean salad, packet tuna, packet salmon, fennel grapefruit and avocado salad, crackers and hummus, baby carrots and dip…. I went shopping on friday afternoon. I spent $90 instead of $60 this week because i was buying food that didnt need to be cooked. However, its doable until the weather gets cooler. I cant grill or cook over a fire right now because of the drought. We have a burn ban in effect for good reason. I do wish they would stop the advancement of the four subdivisions they plan to build here though because i foresee a future where every month of the year could end up being like this. Then i really may have to do some more research into generators and their use and maintenance. Many of my coworkers bought generators after icepocalypse thinking that they would just sit in the yard and they could turn them on during an ice storm. Generators, as it turns out, require constant testing and maintenance to keep them functioning and operational. So when we had an ice storm everybody i know who bought a generator turned theirs on and only one sprung to life. He had tested it religiously once a month since purchasing and fussed and preened over it constantly (he’s retired). Everybody else bought a paper weight for thousands of dollars. So the reality of it is, the situation just has to get dire enough for adding another monthly chore to my plate to be worth it. Getting a generator doesnt seem to end with just buying it. Now you have to supply and maintain it as well as supervise its functioning during use. Sometimes it turns off. Then you have to be home to note it and trouble shoot it.
Anyways, yesterday i ate lunch at 9:30 am, worked a full day, bought a week’s worth of packet food and instant things at the natural grocers in fredericksburg, and then headed home. At 7:30 pm i sat down and ate 7 vegan tacos and half a melon. I was hungry.