It’s been a long, brutal winter, with heating oil close to $4 a gallon and two enormous houses to heat that way. I managed to make it through without filling the tank once in the half of the brick house I occupy. The dog and I survived with a coal stove, space heaters and an electric fake fireplace in the bedroom. But we didn’t like it. It was always nice to spend a couple of days at the stone house, cozy and warm.
It was warm because the oil company in that town let me run a tab. It was the biggest break I got this year, and it came from strangers. Their own business can’t be doing so great in this economy, either. There must be many people who can’t pay, some who will never pay. Without their help this whole house of cards I’m balancing would have fallen apart around mid-January.
May I never be so busy, so cynical or so desperate that I forget who helped me when I had no place to turn.
It’s April 6 today and still cold along the Eastern Seaboard. Still running two furnaces. But I can tell that spring is coming and I know I’ll want to work outside when it does. Many outdoor tasks await at the stone house and the brick house, which both have large lawns with lots of trees. And at the student ghetto, the end of the semester approaches. Not one of the four units is rented for next year, which begins June 1, and tenants are running out of money and flunking out of school. Rent is drying up.
I spent a whole week at the stone house attempting to wrap up some indoor tasks so I’ll be ready for spring. Got a lot done, very nearly all the indoor painting I planned to do this year. The first floor is painted, all but the kitchen which can go another year. Looking good.