posted @ 05:53...

I've been thinking about the cold weather... but now, in perspective. I know something's dreadfully wrong with my cold weather perspective when I look at the 19° readout on the sign at the bank and my first thought is, "Wow, it's warmed up!" Sure, it's 30° warmer than it was last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday... but it's still freakin' cold.

One of the worst things to happen in sub-zero weather is to run out of heating oil. Saturday evening, we arrived home to find the thermostat set it 65°, but the actual temerature was around 50°... Before we moved in to the house, the landlord told us we had a 1000-gallon fuel oil tank. Knowing nothing about home heating oil and having never had to deal it, we thought, "That sounds like a lot, but okay!" In reality, the tank holds 250 gallons. When the tank was last filled, it only took 85 gallons, so we thought, "Hey, we've got plenty in there. We won't have to get it filled for a while!"

So Saturday evening we brought out the space heater and piled on the blankets. By morning, the first floor was 35°. By the timethe emergency fill-up guy from Agway got there, the house was about 33°.