My Hermitage

I love winter and I love the threat of stormy, snow weather. I first heard predictions of our current weather back on December 27. It seemed a long wait for it to finally arrive.

Long enough for me to keep laying in supplies for any eventuality to the point where I am stocked with food to last til March. Every day I thought of items imperative to life that must be stockpiled, especially in case of a power outage.

Think of it! You don’t want to run out of eggs, bread, milk, canned soups, toilet paper, CHOCOLATE, COFFEE, DIET COKE! When you are homebound, you want to be surrounded by those things that bring you comfort. Including macaroni & cheese, potato chips, mixed nuts, caramel corn and chili. And baked goods. Keep the oven busy before the power goes out!

You wouldn’t want to run out of Kleenex, or q-tips, or nail polish remover…because you will finally have time to do your nails. Pick up a special new color for winter weather.

And craft projects! Better make sure you have glue sticks and patterned paper. Because you can finally catch up all your scrapbook projects. Pick up prints at Costco of ALL the photos because you will have the perfect time to go through them all while it’s storming.

Print out the knitting patterns you want to try before the power goes out and make sure you have the right size needles. Stop at the Thrift Store to pick up cheap yarn. It will be the perfect time to knit a sweater for the dog – because she’ll need it!

And while you’re at the Thrift Store check for snow boots and pants, gloves and hats for every member of the family – even the ones that don’t live with you. If the weather is bad enough they’ll need more than one! One to dry while they wear the other.

Buy extra dog food, grain for the goats and shavings for deep bedding. Ice melt for the sidewalks. Gas for the generator. Extension cords for…whatever, you can never have enough. Propane for the barbecue in case you have to cook in the garage. Make sure the car is full of gas. I don’t know why, just do it. It’s not like we will go anywhere but we don’t want to run out of ANYTHING.

Toothpaste! I didn’t check the toothpaste. I don’t want to be snowed in and have dirty teeth!

As it turned out, I was okay for toothpaste. I could not have been better prepared for any eventuality of winter weather. I was ready to make the most of being homebound.

However, when the storm came I did nothing but drink coffee, eat food, watch out the window, check the windchill hourly and take naps. Oh – and make the heroic efforts required to get the dog to go potty outside. That was draining. (See what I did there?)

And apparently, we will not be snowed in for 3 weeks. The power never went out. I have a lot hardboiled eggs left to eat, and piles of supplies to organize. No photos were put in books; my nails are unpolished.

But, I never ran out of a thing, and I thoroughly enjoyed the hermitry, which, I believe, is the entire point of hyper-preparation. Something I might like to do more often.