Solstice Recap

Looking back and seeing if I accomplished anything within my goals over the three hundred-sixty odd days just passed.  Looks like I've done a lot.

• I'm a bit more than a year into the 52 month debt management program, which means roughly a quarter of the debt I had when the rug was yanked out from under me is paid down.
• I am still not missing a desktop PC, nor am I missing a hard wired internet connection, I've had a 3g wireless modem for two years now.
• I have a solid extended camping/disaster preparedness kit assembled which contains one temporary and one sustainable method to recharge a smartphone.
• I have unloaded about two thirds of my total possessions through yard sales, gifting and freecycling.  Of what is left I plan to unload two thirds over the next year: books, gaming materials, tools, my Harley and most likely the Suburban.  The volume depends heavily on the living situation  which depends on whether work recognizes my value.
• I have attempted to get back into the dating scene.   One meetup through mutual friends which exploded spectacularly three hundred-fifty-seven days ago, one meetup from an internet matching site which never progressed beyond "coffee dates", one hookup from getting pounced at an SCA event which became a massive letdown after a few months of exclusive dating.  I have profiles on Geek2Geek, Fitness Singles, Plenty of Fish, and HerWay.  None of which have gotten so much as a nibble.  I will be revamping all of them and reevaluating around Memorial Day.
• I have finally dug out all my archive CDRs, parsed them all together on the hard drive, and gotten all the MP3s plugged into iTunes.  Some of these files were originally on 5.25" floppies, backed up from my original IBM clone (Tandy) 486DX2/50.  Nothing from my Apple programming days nor Linux nor C++ have made it to today.
• I don't buy paper books when they are available from Google Books
• I don't buy batteries anymore, I use NiMH cells almost exclusively.  I have a scale which uses a 9V which will be replaced by one that uses AAA's when the battery and the spare I have expire.
• All of my plastic water bottles have been replaced with stainless bottles (discontinued items from Gander Mountain), my heavy ceramic mugs have been replaced with type 5 polypro insulated tumblers (GSI Outdoors).
• I have two recycled PET plastic grocery bags (ThinkGeek) and they see regular use.
• I have started using Open Office and migrating documents created in proprietary formats.
• Starting yesterday I am donating CPU time to BOINC projects, currently I am processing data for SETI, MilkyWay, and Einstein.  I also signed up for the Large Hadron Collider and uFluids but there are no data packets currently available.  I last ran data for SETI when I had the Linux platform, the data being processed today is the data that got first pass analysis back then.
• I use paperless grocery lists (android widget), workout logs (smartphone app and Blog), to-do lists (TaskSmash.com) and internet banking with e-statements.
• To prevent paper clutter I immediately shred receipts, bills, statements, mail and anything else the shredder will safely handle as soon as they are identified and recorded as appropriate. 

Short test of self sufficiency: Power Outage

Yesterday the electric went out.  It was cool out, enough that heat is nice to have, but no real danger of pipes freezing.  No wind, storm or anything I was aware of that it could be blamed on.  The laptop never even twitched, though I was bummed to be without my constant companion music.  Easily I made an assessment of what supplies I had, how long before I would have to move my refrigerated and frozen goods to other storage, water saving measures I would apply and how I would get my music back on.


First, I put a fresh cylinder of propane on the camp heater and got it going to maintain the warmth in my area.  Next I opened the closet where my encampment was stored.  The miscellaneous locker was the top of the stack, and I took out the camp battery and the 100W inverter.    That got the music going and kept up the charge in the laptop.  A quick search told me the power outage was not on any maps, so it had not been called in yet.  This informed me that the outage must be extremely local, and town should have power, and thus any store I would go to for water or ice.  I had a sink of dishes that needed to be washed, and my reserve of drinking water was insufficient.  My reserve of propane was enough for cooking and heating water, but the camp heater is a fiend when it comes to fuel consumption.  A check of the weather revealed that it was supposed to stay around 40F all day and drop to the mid-20's during the night so ice would not be needed.


Shutting down the laptop to conserve power, and unhooking the camp battery, I took the battery, a multimeter and the charge cable for the powerstation up to Blur and hooked up the battery to charge during the town run.  Voltage checks confirmed it was charging from Blur.  Quick run up to Maul Mart where I grabbed eight gallons of water (enough to fill one empty storage shelf), and two tanks of propane (filled out the row on the shelf where I kept my reserve propane).


Getting home, as I was beginning to set up camp protocol for dish washing, the power came back on.  I was disappointed.  However I still discovered you can get two flushes with one five gallon bucket of used wash water.