The Expense of Winter Wind.

 

Sometimes there is a little expense involved with surviving a good ole fashioned "Cold Snap".  This has been an expensive winter.  In order to save on oil as the price per gallon sent me into a tizzy, I started using some space heaters to take up the slack.  Thing about space heaters is apparently they use one hell of allot of juice.  I received my last power bill and had a minor spasm.  Now, I really can't put the blame on the power company so much as myself for consciously making the decision to use them in the first place.  

This past weekend Northern New England experienced a frigged air blast from the Great Northern Hell.  Temps dropped below -30 Saturday night without the wind giving it's 2 cents.  It was cold.  Again, I've made the decision to use space heaters.  One in the basement, one in the kitchen, one in our bedroom, and one in a back hall that has an open wall to direct wind.  They were all running, but I am pleased that I've skirted the possibility of frozen pipes.  Extra blankets and sweaters helped support the thin blood of age. 

What I did do, that I suppose in retrospect I shouldn't have, was ignore my vehicle.  The battery died.  I attached it to a trickle charge on my battery charger and crossed my fingers.  What I found out was that it is possible for the temperature to dip down cold enough that charging the battery is just a practice of folly.  It took all afternoon long, and into the evening before I could start my CRV.  After it started I let it run for a good hour to charge, warm and insure that it would start in the morning.  During that process our youngish son came home for a short visit and pointed out the apparent flat tire situation caused by the coldness.  I waited till morning to deal with that.  

In the morning I started up my pony and proceeded to fill tires with air using my Slime Green air pump plugged into the power plug of the car.  It works well, but takes a goodly amount of time.  

As Cold Snaps go, this was a good one, and prompted me to purchase a starter pack, more power than one person should use in a lifetime, and a possible new battery.  Dang Cold Snap got expensive.

Peace and Balance,

John