I haven't done much blogging this week because I've had my 9/11 sickness. What is a "9/11 sickness" you may ask? Well let me tell you. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on that fateful day. I was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, shivering. I had come down with an illness, be it flu or very bad cold, I don't know, but I had called into work, as I was definitely in no shape to go in that day. My wife, at the time, called me and told me to turn on the TV, to watch what was going on after the first plane had hit the first tower. I watched the second plane hit the second tower live. She called me back a little later and asked me to try to get a hold of her daughter who lived in Pittsburgh as there had been reports of a plane going down "in" Pittsburgh, and she was worried. I spent the next four days sitting on the couch watching the drama unfold. I probably could have gone back to work after two days, maybe three, but this was one of those times when you just couldn't pull yourself away from it. As for my 9/11 sickness, I have been sick every 9/11 since that day. It always seems to come back to remind me, and it's gotten to the point where I've given it a name. It's strange that it should come back at the same time every year. I didn't miss any work this year, so I guess I've made up for taking those extra days off 5 years ago. It has become a tradition that I will be sick on that day, a tradition that I wouldn't mind seeing come to an end.
I made my first pot of chili of the season this week. Chili is a traditional fall and winter food, meant to warm you up when the weather turns colder, and as the leave
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A tragic death has occurred. My coffee maker has given up the ghost. I'm afraid it died from being overworked, and has left me drinking instant coffee all week. I have to get to the store to buy a new one today. I used to have a backup coffee maker, but I think my ex snagged it when she moved out. My backup coffee maker was a twenty-year-old Norelco, though not very pretty, never failed to function. It had been passed from family member to family member and was one of those machines that never seems to give up. Hopefully I can get to the store to get a new one today.
I finally ordered my pellets for my pellets stove yesterday. Pellets are made of compressed sawdust, a byproduct of the wood industry, which are burned in a stove specially designed for them. This is how I heat my home in the winter. This year it will cost me roughly 230$ a month to heat my house with the pellets. If I heated my house with the gas furnace, because of the size and age of my house, some months the bill would be about 400$ and maybe higher depending on the whims of the gas company. I have been a little worried this year because I would normally have had my pellets in long before this, with a few unexpected bills, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to afford them. I had one ton leftover from last year, so I ordered four more tons that should be delivered this week. I like to have five tons on hand, as this was the amount I used during a very bad winter a few years back, and consider that to be the "worst case scenario" as far as winters go around here. I pretty much burn a consistent one ton a month during the winter, and will burn gas in the very beginning and end of the winter when it costs less than 230$ a month to do so, which was the price per ton this year. When I started burning pellets about eight years ago they were 130$ a ton, but since then, with many people changing over to wood pellets, and the price of gas skyrocketing, it has driven up the price substantially. Still there is great peace of mind that comes with having your heat for the winter already paid for and knowing there won't be any big surprises from the gas company.
2 comments:
When 9/11 happened I had cable and I watched nothing but news channels every waking hour until after Christmas. It was really a sickness. When I couldn't afford cable anymore it was probably a blessing.
Hi Liz
I think we were all glued to the tv for quite some time, not quite believing it was true...
How did you manage to post on my beta site? have you started a beta blog of your own?...
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