Our Own

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As my friend Kris said, we are having our own version of the Arctic Blast here... and it has nothing to do with ice and snow. The last week we have been victims of both a trucking strike and a fuel/oil producers strike.  The result?  Gas stations ran out of fuel, not only because of a relative shortage due to lack of deliveries, but also due to extreme 'panic-buying' by everyone whose tank was nearing empty.  

Thankfully, we had just filled our tank before the shortage began and so we have plenty of fuel to last us for a while.  However, we definitely don't want to 'waste' any fuel and have decided to stay very close to home unless we absolutely have to go out.  I 'stocked up' on a few essentials at the store yesterday... rice, flour, milk, diet coke.  I think we'll survive.  However, instead of going out to the movies on Friday night, we stayed home and watched a movie on our 'big screen' wall.  Instead of going out to lunch on Saturday at our new favorite restaurant, we stayed home and plan to have warm and comforting pea soup and biscuits for our dinner.  I think this strike will save us a lot of money!

The strikes had already taken their toll on some of the businesses we frequent who were unable to receive product deliveries since trucks were not running... We had to change our order for family pizza night since they ran out of large pizza crusts (we think they get these pre-made from some factory instead of making them) and so we had to get two medium deep dish pizzas (instead of one large hand tossed crust)... and they only had one order of garlic breadstick dough in the place.  Interesting!  Obviously, we are not suffering.  And actually we found out that the kids like the deep dish more than they like the hand-tossed.  Imagine that.

We did not have to stock up on produce or eggs since those come from local growing vendors who do not rely on heavy transport vehicles to get their products to market.  However, most milk products come from a faraway state, so we were sure to get extra milk (in tetra-pack heat-treated boxes that never go bad) so we can, if nothing else, eat cereal... something else we hoarded.

Looking in my pantry now, I see that we could probably eat 'til March without shopping again.  Maybe I'll try that!  Kevin goes traveling for 2 weeks and I like to see how long I can go without shopping whenever he travels.  Oh the little games we play to keep ourselves entertained.  However, I have become addicted to eating eggs and potatoes every day for lunch (2 eggs, 1c potatoes, total of 240 calories) and so I might have to break my shopping fast to get more of those perishables.

Anyway, all of those who are stranded in NorthWestern America, we are kind of standing right there with you... we feel your pain... and will be housebound and stir crazy in no time.

~lk

Comments

The SC Elwarts said…
I slightly feel your pain. This summer, when the hurricanes hit Texas, we ran out of gas in South Carolina. Well, at least our part of SC ran out of gas. The thing that made things worse were all the idiot filling up their tanks when they were still 3/4 full. Thankfully, the couple times I needed gas those months, I was able find a gas station that had just been filled. I haven't stayed home so much in my life! I almost forgot what it was like to go to WalMart. :) That being said, Lauren's stuttering drastically improved because our lives weren't so busy.
11:55 AM
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