A world without oil, part i

I was once so broke that I'd try to save money by only using candlelight at night around my apartment. It gave my cruddy little flat a romantic, bohemian glow, and it made me laugh that I was so cheap. The heat for the apt came from two heaters -- a beat up old furnace-type thing in the bedroom in one end of the apt, and a built-in heater on the side of my gas stove. Having the two of them blazing kept the place plenty warm. In fact, the bedroom heater, even on low, was too hot. So at night I'd pile all my blankets, my pea coat and a few assorted bits onto the bed, turn off the heater and then crawl into bed fully dressed (though no shoes).

I thought those days were temporary. Well, they were for awhile. I finished grad school, got a decent job and finally had money for luxuries like heat and fresh snow peas and shoes from Zappo's. Life was pretty good, I see that now.

Then the oil crisis came along. My boyfriend and I alwsys joked that should such a thing come to pass, we'd be OK because I could cook and was learning how to garden, and we could live off the land. And he was really good at fixing things, a quaint antique skill not so long ago in the land of disposables. But then when it happened, it happened quickly. Gone were the low-priced goods from overseas -- there wasn't enough oil to transport them. Gone were my kitchy finger puppets and Kindereggs and yes even the snow peas. We are back to using candles at night, and sleeping under a mountain of blankets. But at least this time there is a 'we'.

When we bought this house, I insisted we live near public transportation. What a gift that decision turned to be, excpet half the time we end up pushing the buses. The buses are always overcrowded, too, no special credit for those of us who rode on them Before. And the yard that I tried to grow begonias on before, and cursed the weeding and plantin and mulching hell. We've been able to subdivide the land, which was small to start with, and lease it out to hungry condo dwellers. Thankfully, we get a lot of extra veggies in the summer, tomatoes and zucchini and pole beans, which I'm able to can, if not grow.

The sun's setting, and the generator's about to give out, so more tomorrow.