(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews.)
Prompt: What inventive ways do you have to keep warm?
My immediate reaction is, "Ask me that again this time next month, when the late February cold snap drops on us like an anvil from the sky and the Texas power grid curls up and dies like a slug exposed to salt." Because, yeah: I absolutely guarantee that that's going to happen again if we get anything even remotely like the same sort of weather as we had last year. We've already seen that Governor Abbott and his pet power companies haven't done anything to harden against cold weather. Their strategy seems to consist entirely of hoping that weather won't be so bad this year. And honestly; that may be giving them too much credit. It's entirely possible that the folks in charge are looking forward to profiting off the deaths and desperation. Disaster Capitalism is nothing new.
A friend of mine (also in Texas) did a Twitter thread a while back that had a lot of helpful suggestions. On our end... I have a decent amount of camping gear. (Though I should probably go buy more propane. Huh.) Problem is, you have to be very careful with that. I can use a propane grill to cook... in the garage, or out on the porch, but if you try it in the house you're pretty much asking for carbon monoxide poisoning. (We do have a detector.) So we're looking at layering up on clothes, using disposable plates and dishes, doing the cooking out in the cold, and like that. We do have a fireplace, but I don't keep any wood around; it's small and smoky at the best of times, and honestly hasn't been used since well before we had kids. Gods know what might have gotten in and blocked up the chimney since then.
So mainly, it'll be a matter of layers of clothing and warm drinks if we can manage them. And plenty of books and games to pass the time. Sleeping bags within sleeping bags, for night time.
If we do have power -- and we were one of the luck few places who did, last year -- then our only problem is that the power companies are going to try to bankrupt us for their own profit. But, again, Disaster Capitalism isn't anything new.
But for non-disaster staying warm? I don't really have anything especially creative. I stay indoors and drink a lot of tea.
I have a friend who lived in Texas (she's since come home to God's country ;-)) and I remember hearing about what all she went through last year. Here's hoping you can escape the disaster that was last year.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to come with creative ways to stay warm. Increasingly it seems fewer and fewer states really can handle bad weather. We are so not ready for climate change!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at the strategy of hoping weather won't be so bad this year, because that's pretty much what our government does. Every time we get snowed in, which happens a lot these days, the official response is "Whaaat? Snow?" as the country grinds to a halt.
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