The arrival rate of books that I'd like to read exceeds my
throughput of books, and has for many years. The inevitable
conclusion is that the number of books that I would like to
read but haven't read is heading off towards infinity,
though it seems likely I will die before it actually gets
there. I'm running into a similar problem with my blog, with
ideas for things I'd like to write about arriving faster
than I write about them. In other words, it's as I suspected
--- my brain has an unstable pole, located on the
right side of my brain, probably in the spot where I was
supposed to store my multiplication tables, which explains
why whenever someone asks me what 6 x 7 is there's a long
pause while I add 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 in my head. Writing
about the fact that I have too much stuff to write about
only adds iteration to instability.
After a marvelous and unexpected brunch, my housemate Jason
and I decided to walk across the ice to Picnic Point. 15
F? No problem, in
comparison to the rest of the weather we've had this winter,
15 F only qualifies as 'brisk.' The walk to the stairs that
lead down to the lake was pleasant enough --- but with each
step we took down the wind blew harder. There were patterns of lines etched
on the surface of the ice and shadowy fractures with a
murky three dimensional geometry embedded in the ice, very
pretty but probably not worth risking frostbite for. We made it about
1/16th of the way to Picnic Point before reason prevailed
and we turned back. Here's Jason's
assessment of our outing.
It was much warmer back inside Rivendell, but like so
many things in life, the problem was not the level but the trend --- the
furnace had stopped working and the house was losing heat fast.
Wayne, the furnace dude, showed up about an hour later.
Wayne is nice. Wayne is prompt. Wayne is competent. Wayne
has developed quite a rapport with our beastly old
furnace. We like Wayne. But we
really would have prefered that Wayne not come visit us on Sunday
afternoon. Especially since Wayne's last visit cost us $1700.
Maybe in the future we can just meet Wayne at the bar for
a couple of drinks instead of having him come see us at
Rivendell.
Between the cold weather and the furnace repairs,
not to mention the less than forward-looking budgeting
process that was used last August to decide rents for the
year, the Rivenbudget is under a lot of strain. The last financial
report was grim, the cold and the price of heating oil has made a huge dent
in our budget and reserves, and
we're carrying debt that could make any future increases in interest rates
quite unpleasant.
So what are we doing? Most of our
big expenses, mortgage, taxes,
heat, are non-negotiable but we're cutting back where we
can. Previously, incidental purchases of less than 50$ were okay'd by a
nod from the treasurer, now they require a vote of the whole house and are
restricted to absolute necessities. We've also tapped into our food budget
to make up for the higher than average heating bills, that means no more
8$ bags of frozen raspberries, fewer pecans, almonds and
hazlenuts and finding the bottom in the bottomless canister of
chocolate chips. We snuck in a 10$ rent increase, in the guise
of an "high speed internet/cable tv" charge, but for many of the
people living here, that just means 10$ less to spend on incidentals
like movies and eating out during the month. Today Jason,
Comella, Bill & I resisted the temptation to go out for sushi, and
had leftover tomato soup (homemade by Comella on Friday
night -- yum!) for lunch instead, that's 25 -
40$ that we didn't spend.
I don't see any 'recovery'
in sight for the Rivenrecession, and if the price of oil or
interest rates rise things could get worse. We're like
a microcosm of the national economy --- except that
no one at Rivendell thinks the solution is starting a war on another coop to
get control of their heating oil reserves.
