After the freeze in the springtime, I became focused and a little obsessed with the idea of being prepared for bad times. We went and bought a generator I have yet to fire up, we bought some lamps and batteries, water purification kits, like those used on camping trips, basically filtering straws. The generator would be too small to run the whole house, but at least it would give us some options to keep our freezers running for our food supplies.
Later towards the summer and warmer months, the stupid meteorologists predicted and warned us to expect rolling blackouts, so I then got the idea that we have a generator, if we buy a smaller wattage air conditioner, we can have one room in the house, cooled down so we can be comfortable during these rolling blackouts. It was a very weird summer in that we hardly had any 100 degree days, maybe a handful and dispersed here and there. Some summers we have gone 20 and 30 days straight where we break 100 degrees and even at midnight, it might still be above 95, this was just not that type of summer. We had rain chances and moisture in the area almost all summer, and sporadic showers kept the area from drying out completely, I still have green grass, and I never water the lawn.
Along with the air conditioner, I thought it would be a good idea to get a grill that could cook without electricity. I love my pellet grill, but it does require power for the convection fan and other components. I started buying a bunch of bags of charcoal for my charcoal grill and that would work but then I kept seeing the Blackstone grills and they look so modern, so I jumped on the bandwagon and bought one, their smallest version, a 17 inch grill, it will even fit in a backpack to take to the beach or hiking, or so the ads claim. I bought about a dozen of those small 1 pound green propane cylinders at the time, and tried the grill. The grill will run about 3-4 hours on one container, I kept it on to season the skillet surface and then cooked some fajitas. I figure I could get 2-3 meals cooked per bottle, in an emergency.
Now, we are heading into the cooler months and I got a bug up my butt about needing some alternative heating sources. We were lucky in the last freeze, we lost power for maybe 30 minutes total. Some people, most of my family, were without power for 4-5 days. My mom said my dad wasn't looking too good, I think of him as the weakest link, physically, and he shouldn't have to go through another situation like that. Yesterday, I woke up "needing" to go get some of these heaters, and luckily I found three of them at Lowe's. I was only going to buy one, but Wife said to get three, so the boys could each have one with them, if they are in their rooms. I then felt like I needed to get more propane cylinders, so I went to Walmart and bought another dozen, they are going for $7.37 a 2-pack right now. I also saw some hurricane lanterns that run on "lamp oil", so I got two of them, they only had the two plus a half gallon of the oil. They are also safe to burn indoors, or so they claim. I will also be adding some carbon monoxide detectors to the house, if we are going to be burning all sorts of gasses inside, even if they claim to be safe.
I have been telling my family to get prepared and order some of these heaters or something to have alternate heat. My parent's house is plumbed with propane lines, we used to have a gas heater in the living room growing up before they installed central air, so I keep telling my mom to make sure that it is operational, just in case. We are fortunate in that none of us are poor, we can spend some money for preventative measures, as a just in case. Like I keep saying, we were unprepared last year, the winter storm was a freak of nature, but if it happens again and people are singing the same stupid song of "We're sitting here freezing", then I have to conclude that you are basically a stupid person.
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