Steps

Since I'm walking now because of my tyrannical (my perception only) Fitbit, I have more time to think and what I've noticed is that I am undoing years and years of training.  I used to gather everything I needed to make one trip to the next place I'm going so I don't have to backtrack.  For example, hanging out the clothes.  I need:  1. clothes basket; 2. wet clothes; 3. bag of clothespins; 4. my bottle of water (if it's summer.)  

Before Fitbit's tyranny (again, my perception only), I put the wet clothes, bag of clothespins, and my bottle of water (if it's summer), into the laundry basket, put the laundry basket in my little red wagon and made my way over to the clothesline which is a fair distance from our house.  I am, if nothing else, an organized human being.

Now, to get more steps, I put the wet clothes into the empty laundry basket, carry the basket to the little red wagon and make my way over to the clothesline.  Then I walk -- the long way -- back to the house to get the bag of clothespins and take them over to the clothesline, THEN I walk -- the long way -- back to the house to get my bottle of water (if it's summer) and walk back again to the clothesline to actually hang out the clothes.  I'm not sure what I will do in the wintertime --- much quicker steps, I'm sure.

We humans be crazy, yes??  At least this human.

Solar Power

Previously on this blog I have written about how we were without power for 11 days earlier in 2010 because of a horrific ice storm. (See Ice Storm of January 2010) While we had talked about alternative power sources before the ice storm, we never actually did anything about it -- it was just talk.  Then when everything went dark and cold for over a week, we decided to make changes as soon as we were on our feet again.

My husband says that we are too far along in life to try wind power even though we live in one of the windiest states in the nation and we live out in the middle of a cow pasture.  But he's right.  The start up costs for wind power are prohibitive for ordinary people, which is a shame.  Start up costs are at least $20,000 -- and that's doing it yourself.

However, Harbor Freight had a deal on solar panels and my husband thought we would experiment with that idea.  In addition to living in one of the windiest states, we also live in a very sunny part of our state.  He ordered the panels and they arrived promptly.  Then he found a video produced by user GoatHollow on YouTube which we found helpful and entertaining about installing and using solar panels from Harbor Freight.
Thank you, GoatHollow!

My husband built a frame for the panels and we installed them on top of my little house, "Summersgaze."  Right now the solar panels are powering two lights and my husband is also using the panels to recharge different batteries around our place.  We are pleased with the solar panels and if our little experiment continues to work, we may purchase more.

A box full of three solar panels from Harbor Freight

My husband installing panels on roof of Summersgaze.
I helped him lift the panels onto the roof.

The Great Digital Conversion

So it's been over a year since the great Digital Conversion. How's that working out for you? Is it really better to be able to see pictures in greater, clearer detail? How about when the scene on the television freezes up, goes to colorful little squares like a Matisse collage, then fades to black and the words "no signal" pop up on the screen. Better quality is always something to strive for, but at least with analogue, a picture, fuzzy though it could be at times, was still there. We are on our second digital television antenna. Unfortunately, we had a horrific ice storm in January 2010 which took out our first one.


In March 2009, I sent the following letter to our public television station, revised for this blog to protect the innocent:


"Gentlepeople:


I heard a report on NPR the other morning about how peachy the digital conversion is going. It has not been peachy for us. 


We were as smug and snug as two bugs in a rug thinking we were ready. My husband began purchasing equipment to convert to digital television last summer. He read everything he could lay his hands on about converting to digital television. 


This is what we have purchased and installed, to the tune of over $800 so we could continue to receive “free“ television: 


1) An omni directional D-8 antennae advertised as HD ready; it is installed on our outside 50 foot pole. 


2) An HD-TV for our living room; 


3) A converter box for an older television in our family area. 


4) A television signal amplifier from Radio Shack to boost signal. 


We thought we were ready because we began receiving all these new stations and the original stations we had received before were coming in great. We were prepared for the “Great Conversion” and we looked down on the poor slobs that were waiting until the last moment to get ready for that wonderful thing called digital TV. We extolled its virtues to friends and family. 


February 17, 2009 came -- it was a bright, sunny day here in southwestern Oklahoma. We had no qualms because we were ready. However, when we sat down for our evening television viewing, the PBS station and the CBS affiliate, both broadcasting from Oklahoma City, 65 miles to our northeast,  were nowhere to be found.  We cannot then and cannot now pick them up. We have scanned ad nauseum. Do you know how long it takes to scan????? But we do it religiously every day in hopes that we will be able to pick up these stations. My husband goes out and adjusts our antenna -- admittedly with trepidation because we do not want to lose the stations we are receiving -- to see if today is the day we can perhaps pick up those stations. 


In 8 Mar 2009's Lawton Constitution, (yes, we still read a hard copy of the newspaper), there was an article about digital conversion and how individuals who live in rural areas are having difficulties picking up digital signals. We learned something new. At least one station -- the CBS affiliate -- had been broadcasting its digital signal from Channel 36 but when February 17 came, they switched to 9, losing quality in the signal.  Apparently that is why we are no longer able to pick  up that particular channel.  Perhaps this has happened with public television also?


Question: As average viewers, how are we supposed to keep up with what signal a television station is broadcasting from? This is ridiculous. 


We remember the days of the rabbit ears. We remember snow on the television screen. We remember test patterns. We miss those days because even if one had snow on the screen, one could still watch a television program. Now it's all or nothing, and I gotta tell you -- we feel screwed. 


We are NOT getting a satellite dish. We are NOT hooking up to cable. We are NOT watching television programs on our computer screen!!!   


Fortunately we like to read and we listen to public radio. We are playing more games of Scrabble. 


We remember the days of free television paid for by our sitting through intermittent advertising and we certainly are not going to pay a fee to watch cable and/or DishTV which also has advertising. I remember the days when cable first came out. Our neighbor came over and said, "We are getting cable. $12.00 a month. You know what is great? There are no commercials."  Well, now cable/satellite costs an arm and a leg and there are the same commercials on cable that are on regular broadcast "free television." 


We just wanted to let you guys know that not everything is going great with the transfer to digital.  Have a great DIGITAL day! 


Sincerely,"

* * * * * * * * * *

Fast forward to today, October 7, 2010.  I can say I like one thing about digital television. It's allowed television sets to become more compact and lightweight so they can be displayed on a wall. Hanging a television on a wall provides more floor space.  That's it.  That's the only thing about digital television that I like.  

THE ICE STORM OF JANUARY 2010

The dragonflies are drifting down our road today.  They are riding the heat rising from the black asphalt of the county road that runs in front of our house.  Autumn is my favorite time of year.  However, the season after beloved Autumn, the long, cold dark one whose name I cannot utter, is not as welcomed.  Especially after the last long, cold dark one.  


On Thursday, January 28, 2010, our lives, powered by electricity, stopped.  An ice storm of mythical proportions pounded the southern half of the State of Oklahoma.  We held our collective breath and stared out the window at the pouring rain, which, moment by moment, became heavier until it turned into ice.  The power lines swayed close to the ground and our television antenna looked like an Ice Beast preparing to attack our home.  Accompanying the tremendous amount of rain were high winds that whipped around the corners of our house.  Sometimes we could not tell from which direction the wind was coming.  If this event had happened in the spring or summer, it would have been a severe thunderstorm.
  
It was 1:20 p.m. Thursday afternoon when our lives, powered by electricity, stopped.  Sitting in the living room we wondered out loud how much longer we would have our lights, central heat, computer and Internet access, television, shower, and the ability to flush our toilets – such an inane thing that looms large once one isn’t able to flush.  


“Divorce Court” was airing on the television.  Judge Lynn Toler had just said, “Now, tell me your side of the story, Mrs . . .”.  Darkness and silence.  Everything stopped.  We looked at each other, then stared out the window.
  
To one another, we said, “Sometimes, the electricity comes back on.”  Yes, it does, but it didn’t on Thursday, January 28.  We waited a little bit.  Then I heard a beep coming from upstairs.  It was the battery to my computer beeping that I could still use the computer for another 45 minutes before it shut down too. Life support.   I climbed up the stairs and turned everything off, unplugging all electrical equipment from their outlets.  Still, I hoped. There is always hope.


The ice still fell from the skies, though.  The wind whipped the trees into a frenzy until two of the oldest, weakest trees fell from west to east across our road, preventing traffic traveling north and south from getting through.


The first night of darkness, we set up in the living room.  We set up battery powered lanterns and lit candles.  Earlier last year, Carl purchased a propane powered heater for his workshop in the garage.  He brought it over and set it up in the living room.  On a full tank of propane, the heater burns for four hours.


We huddled under our blankets. Instead of television, we set up our battery powered tape recorder and listened to audio books.  Daniel Pinkwater talked about dogs he had owned, then “Killer Angels” was put in – that great story about the Battle at Gettysburg by Michael Shara.  We still had that little glimmer of hope that the electricity might return.  


We soon tired of listening to audio books and our battery powered radio. Public radio was hard to pick up and country music or Golden Oldies were the only stations we could receive.  Radio station KOMA out of Oklahoma City aired weather breaks from Gary England with television’s KWTV-Channel 9, also out of Oklahoma City, and that helped some.  (It was a help until the storm stopped and the station went back to regular programming.)  Even though the news was out of Oklahoma City, it helped to make us feel less isolated.  (We didn’t have much faith in Lawton’s media coverage.  During the Christmas Eve blizzard of 2009, we didn’t lose electricity, but when we switched to KSWO Channel 7, the ABC television affiliate in Lawton, for weather and road updates, the station had switched to a picture of a Yule log burning in the fireplace, while holiday music played in the background.)


Bedtime came.  It is funny how early one is willing to go to bed when there are no lights and no television.  I piled all the blankets I could find on our bed and we allowed Emma the dog, and the cats, Taylor and Zippy, to sleep with us.  The outside air temperature dropped to the teens; we weren’t sure how cold the house would get during the night.  It was a long, cold, silent night.  There was no light from the digital alarm clock and no white noise from the sound machine.  There were only the noises that two humans, one dog, and two cats can make.


And that is as much as I can write about that time, except for this:  When there is no power to a community, that means there is no ATM service, no power to the grocery stores and no power to local gasoline stations.  NO POWER means no power anywhere. And that is a lesson we have paid attention to.  We can read about what to do when a disaster strikes, but it's only until something does happen, that we sit up and take notice.


I did do some filming and have posted a little film about our experience.  The only comfort was in knowing that everyone else in southwestern Oklahoma was in the same pickle!  And, really, compared to other disasters, manmade and natural, I have no complaints.  We made it through and have prepared for this coming “long, cold dark one.”