Where do I begin? Lots of interesting things have been happening here. It's really been pretty quiet compared to other places. We're very rural here so no "mob-scenes" or hordes. Everyone is still going about their business more or less, with the usual Yankee stoicism, but there are changes happening for sure.

My mailcarrier happened to mention when he was dropping off my mail that it is almost certain that the Post Office is going to eliminate Saturday deliveries for all rural areas. That's not too big of a hit for me- I can deal with that. I do feel bad for the Saturday carrier though- they are going to fire all their substitute carriers who work Saurdays and fill in for absent carriers as a cost-savings measure. She just bought a brand new SUV too.

In a similar vein, my UPS driver was dropping off some plants for me and mentioned that UPS is going to start charging a "fuel-surcharge" for delivery to all rural areas outside of large population centers. That means me for sure. He expects it to be about $20 per package to start- on top of the regular shipping price which is going to get much higher. Yikes. The only solution to avoid this(other than move!) is to have your packages shipped to someone in a "population-center" and drive there to get it. What a pain.....

Was thinking about shipping costs again while I was working on preparing a bed for planting strawberries. I used to buy "plugs" of strawberries- and plant them in August. This worked really well for me. I was looking at some old invoices and I can't believe that I used to be able to have a tractor trailer deliver pallets full of these plugs, all in flats, all the way from New Jersey for about $35!  What were we thinking? I can't do that anymore- I've switched to bare root plants- shipping for these is high enough! And potatoes. Just realized that no way am I going to be able to afford to buy seed potatoes next year- especually with that extra UPS surcharge added to each case! Am going to have to save seed from this years crop- and store it over winter. Need to start thinking about how best to do this.

So I finally decided to go to town and pick up those staples. Figured I'd run a bunch of errands, stock up on a few things. Was thinking about what might start getting really expensive that I might want to lay in a good supply of. Now I don't want to "do a Y2K" here- and get all panicky.  I knew someone who got so freaked out by it that she cashed in her entire IRA and bought food and stuff to store. But it makes sense to think about these things. So I figured I'd pick up some coffee. That could only get more expensive due to shipping, and I don't want to face all of this without coffee!

The trip to town was interesting. In seven miles I counted 14 snowmobiles for sale, parked on peoples lawns. Also 7 ATV's, 11 SUV's and 3 full-sized pick-ups. That was just on the main drag in a seven mile stretch. I would say that people here are getting it alright. But who is going to buy these? Come winter is it going to be just rich people zooming around on snowmobiles? Now personally I hate those things. I like to cross-country ski and snowshoe on trails here and those things are nasty, noisy, smelly beasts. So I won't be sorry to see less of them. But it's mostly a blue-collar/lower-class phenomenon here- lots of snowmobiles and ATV's parked outside decrepit trailers and such here. How will those people react if they can't afford to do this anymore and they just see well-off folks out there snowmobiling? What will these people do with themselves? Watch more TV?

Anway- I stopped at the gas station to fill up the tank and some gas cans. It was pretty full of people also filling gas cans! Now here people are used to keeping some gas around for mowers or ATV's, etc but I've been hearing that people in the cities even are starting to fill up gas cans to store some gas against furher price increases or shortages. That makes me worried. I even heard about some guy planning on storing gas in a closet in his apartment! Bet we'll start seeing some nasty explosions and fires from this.

So I got my gas and headed home. Realized that even though it was turkey hunting season, there were absolutely no "Road Hunters"- those guys who drive around in SUV's and pick-ups, crusing at 5-10 mph, scanning the fields waiting for Bambi or whomever to appear conveniently close to the road so they can just blow them away and toss em in the truck without having to walk into the woods or something. Anway- for the first time I can recall, these people are not driving around doing this. That's a plus!

The update on my friends. Krystal and Kate have decided that 5 days of pre-school, even though it's all paid for is a no-go because of the commute. So they don't want to pull the kids out immediately as it would be too upsetting so they are cutting back to 3 days this coming week, and they'll see what happens in terms of gas prices and supply after that for the rest of the month. But in any event, by June, no more pre-school.

Karen and Jim"s son got accepted by the private school they had applied to but now as it's about 40 miles from here and in the opposite direction of where they work, he won't be going there after all. It's the town school for him. Too bad as he's a good kid and really smart. But he'll be fine I'm sure.

Last night I got together with my neighbors to knit- and gab. They all live in the village and can just easily walk to each others houses. I live 4 miles up the mountain though. I was thinking about it as I drove there. How long can I afford to do this? I could bike there I suppose but hate the thought of biking all the way back at night. I worked at letting the car coast as much as possible in the downhill stretches- saves gas that way.

Well, got to get to work planting those strawberries. More later.

Tags: world with no oil
Current Mood: pensive