Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

I just looked at the weather forecast, and it looks like I'm going to have to get pro-active about fuel by Thursday or risk short supplies. The sky is iron-gray with heavy overcast and apparently intends to stay that way, which makes the solar collector tower an expensive monument to impressive-looking but useless technology. That's the least of issues, because I've got a back-up generator, a back-up back-up generator, and lots of gasoline and oil. I've got enough propane for at least three weeks of normal winter use, but that's a thinner margin than I like. Where I really fell down is in the matter of kerosene, which runs my lamps and back-up heater. I'm down to maybe 1.5 gallons and what's in the reservoirs, and that's just dumb. Only a few days supply with heavy use, not that I plan to use them heavily but "planning" isn't what back-ups are for. Sheesh.

The problem isn't the bad weather. This is important if you've ever thought of living in the boonies. The problems start when the weather turns nice. That's when all this snow will melt, all that moisture will go into the ground, and the roads will stop being merely slippery and become positively impassible for a while. Not a problem if you planned ahead and don't need to go anywhere. Not so great if you planned badly. My planning is beginning to look not so exemplary.

Looks like I need to plan an expedition to town while I still can. I really hate that, but this 'paranoid recluse' thing can be taken to extremes.