No poem for days. May be I have lost my zing! Like this polymer clay guy who seems sort of indefinite. Maybe tomorrow. (I shrug. :)
METAPHORatorium
The river of life flows on - Mar's notes, photos, artwork, (660+ posts)
Friday, May 10, 2024
Friday, May 3, 2024
No restaurant like home
NO RESTAURANT LIKE HOME
Whole wheat and rolled oats with flax,
golden in the hot pan
cook one side then add to the top:
Red red raspberries, crunchy chopped walnuts.
Add remaining batter on top. Wait.
Wait some more. Flip. Wait. Then Flip some more.
When you think it might finally be cooked inside
Cut it in half and look. Make sure!
Get out the maple stuff.
Pour the coffee.
Be grateful.
Know how improbably lucky it is to have a meal at all.
- Mad Mar Mistryel Walker
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
The Hiding Habit
THE HIDING HABIT
When the world shouts obscenities
and the winds of change roar in the trees,
move low to the ground to the hiding place.
When fear is strong, pay attention.
Sit in stillness, in silence and listen.
Wait. Think. You don't have to move yet.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Purr to comfort yourself.
Sunday, April 28, 2024
The apple's proximity to the tree
The Parent As A Child |
Monday, April 1, 2024
I'm AWAKE and WATCHING YOU WORLD!
Saturday, December 31, 2022
3 Month review of the heat pump
It's New Years Eve and I've now had three months of electric bills with the heat pump. Remember I'm heating around 950 square feet with a Fujitsu Halcyon- an 18,000 BTU mini-split for cold climates.
So I'm going to offer my last three months of electric bills. My normal electric bill is around $50. (I don't use much juice I guess. No large TV or stereo, no cable modem or TV controller, I never use the stove - i'm a microwave, rice-cooker person.) So I'm figuring any amount in excess of $50, we can chalk up to the heat pump.
The first month hardly counts as it was early fall: the bill for September,-October, (mostly milder weather this year) was $67. I ran the thing constantly as the advice was to set it and forget it so that's what I did.... So $17 for a little heat.
For October-November, a colder time at the end, my bill was $102. So $52 for heat. Not bad.
November-December had some really cold spells. My bill was $202. So $152 for heat. I would have had an oil delivery by now. So $152 compared to $400-$945 for a load of #2 heating oil, depending on the price of oil.
UPDATE: Feb 6, 2023 - I now have the Dec-Jan bill also a bit higher but still better than a tank of oil - $272 minus the baseline $50 so $222 for heat.
(I have water filled heat pipes in three rooms not heated by the mini-split. If temps are freezing, say in the teens for several days straight - I am sporadically running a electric space heater on low in two rooms to keep those rooms about 50 degrees. The cost of running them is included in the electric bill. For three days when temps were in the single digits, I ran the furnace over night - for just for three days to warm up that unused space so the pipes don't freeze.
So far so good. I still have most of the oil delivered here in March at an exorbitant price. (I have hot water off the furnace. Dont use much of that either I guess!) The electric company will up rates in January. We'll see how that pans out. :)
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Heat Pumps - a gentle, steady warmth
An air-to-air, ductless minisplit heat pump is a kind of sneaky device.
Pictured above at right, is the outside unit - a Fujitsu Halcyon Inverter installed a month ago. This heat pump installation is designed to heat the areas I actually live in - a core area of bedroom, kitchen, dining room, living room. And as it gets colder its proving its worth. I'm waiting for the first month's electric bill. (This time last year I was heating with electric space heaters instead of using the furnace.)
And I will be quite happy not to buy more #2 heating oil for a while. Instead of six tankfuls a season I'm hoping the full tank I have (delivered in MARCH when I didnt need it and when prices were skyhigh) will last a lot longer. I will not turn on the regular heat until it's really frigid outside, to keep the pipes in the unused rooms here from freezing....