More of the Same. Still.

Long time readers of EIP (all three of you) know the onset of winter brings a small bit of recurring angst along with colder temps here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington. The angst is all about keeping warm, as an RV is a poorly insulated, drafty sort of accommodation. It’s not that I don’t have a good furnace… I do. It’s just that the thing tends to run longer and more often as the temperature drops. Which brings us to the angst bits: watching my propane gauge like a hawk to ensure I don’t run out of gas on these cold nights. The complicating factor is the small size of my propane tank… which weighs in at only ten gallons… and one can burn through ten gallons of propane very quickly when the temps really drop. And so it came to pass, as it usually does, that I was right on the bubble this past Wednesday where the propane supply was concerned. I had about a quarter of a tank to last me through the four day weekend, as of Wednesday afternoon. Re-supply? Or not?

I checked the WX forecast. I rolled the dice.

I lost.

Yep… we went into the Propane Red Zone late yesterday afternoon and it was chilly (our high was 41). It got even colder last evening, with a low of 31. While that’s not low enough to drive me out and across the street to the Holiday Inn Express, it most certainly was cold enough to keep my two lil auxiliary electric heaters running full-tilt boogie. They did the trick, though, and I managed to stay toasty all night.

I made a quick call to Albert at Cortez Gas first thing this morning, he popped around about an hour later, filled me up, and all is right with the world again. Until next time. Or until such time as Cortez finds an empty 100-gallon tank lying around. I’ve decided to spring for the installation of a larger tank after nearly six years of living with this ten gallon joke of a propane supply. But there are costs, and this is no trivial matter at $300.00 for the installation and initial fill. But I (finally) decided it’s worth it, simply to get rid of the angst. Mom… were she alive… would say “What took ya so long?” The only possible answer is a shrug and an “I dunno…”

―:☺:―

Weirdness… Sometime in the middle of the evening last night I decided to make myself a late-night sammidge, which isn’t all that unusual… but what happened next most definitely was… ummm… different. I go into the kitchen, open the microwave (which doubles as my breadbox), reach in to pull out the bread and was horrified by a swarm of small moths emanating from the microwave. And I mean a frickin’ swarm. There must have been 75 of the lil buggers in there. I pull the bread and assorted other contents (two packages of Hershey’s Cacao Reserve chocolates, a box of Triscuits, and a bag o’ chips) quickly out of the microwave and see there’s still a small horde of moths remaining all over the inside, clustered around a polyethylene bag of pistachios (I buy those in bulk… or used to).

So I did what any male would do… I slammed the microwave door shut, set the controls at two minutes and nuked the little bastards. I expected lotsa cool little sparks and such, accompanied by the (imagined) death cries of teeny-tiny moths as they met their moth-maker. But nope… all I got was the normal humming of the magnetron as it did its grisly work. No mini-pyrotechnics, unfortunately.

Two minutes wasn’t enough to kill all of ‘em, surprisingly. But I got 90% of the lil buggers and killed the remainder by the usual, customary, and expedient means of death by index finger… with extreme prejudice. I also had quite a mess to clean up inside the box… what with approximately 35 ~ 40 moth carcasses and a melted bag full of hot, inedible pistachios. Ten minutes later and the nuker is spotless, but I lost my appetite. All of the food (except for the pistachios) was moth-free, given as how it’s all in tightly-sealed containers, but the clean-up was pretty gross. Who knew pistachios served as a moth-culture medium? Not me…

And now you know the high points of my weekend, Gentle Reader. Well, there was some football, too. But I don’t wanna talk about it. {insert wistful smile here}

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: Three pics taken on the grounds of the old Mission church in Abiquiu. Abiquiu is best known as the home of Georgia O’Keeffe in the later stages of her life but I think the mission church is worth the trip, all on its own. As always, click the pics for larger.

June, 2004.