You suppose there will be a lot of cold-related deaths this coming winter?

[Connonym]

I was talking to a guy in line at Walgreens and he was saying how he feared for rural folks who use heating oil and it got me to thinking and worrying, especially for older folks out in the country who are on a fixed income. How they hell are they going to afford what will likely be massive upfront costs for fuel oil? How many of them will suffer as a result? And what the hell can we do to make sure there's some legal reassurance that these people aren't going to be pretty much left to freeze to death if they can't afford fuel oil?

I'm full of worries of doom and gloom I guess. Although, I personally had a really great interview today with the Waukesha Public Library and I think I'm going to get offered a part-time (i.e., second) job with them. Wish me luck! Nice wages, access to books, books everywhere and if I move up to 20+ hours a week I can join the union and enjoy the benefits of that. Yeah, please, please wish me luck!

[RevCheesehead]

1. You raise an important question.

Since my heat (hot water) is paid by the church, I don't usually see the spike in prices. But I know one family that put in a pellet stove in the basement last winter, and it saved them a ton of money.

I dunno - how do we try to get alternative heating sources to our poorer families in WI? What's available?

Good luck with the job. I hope it works out for you! :)

[Broca]

2. Hopefully

no one dies. My official main heat source is an oil furnace in my basement but in reality I heated mostly with a wood burner on the main floor. But last year I filled my oil tank in Sept. just in case and it was about $2.80/gal for heating oil then. Even so I wore a stocking cap to bed and around the house, sort of like in an old English novel.

Good luck on the job.

[lizziegrace]

7. I did the same

filled my oil tank last fall when it was $2.62/gallon. I lived an entire winter in Ohio on 295 gallons. My thermostat was rarely above 50 and I shut off rooms and put plastic sheeting over doorways where I had two portable radiator heaters - one in my livingroom and one in my bedroom. I also used an electric blanket. I was so cold...

I have no idea what people are going to do this year. Whatever diesel is running, that's what heating oil's going for. Sad.

Also, I rented and was not allowed to put in a pellet stove or woodburning insert. Couldn't afford to heat the place and couldn't afford to move...

[dembotoz]

3. worked for a cap agency in the late 70's

ran some home insulation projects.
Guess maybe those should come back

we never do anything proactive do we.
we always wait until someone dies.....
I think there is opportunity here for making good political hay out here.
Someone just has to do it.

Good luck with the library thing
you would make a great librarian.

[Sabriel]

4. More carbon monoxide deaths, too, I'll bet`

As people try to heat with "alternatives."

I had one student (who when she's not at college lives with her grandparents) tell me last year that she found out from a neighbor that her grandparents keep the heat at 50 degrees when she's not there.

Yikes.

Students are getting hit hard, too. A lot of them live in those crappy, uninsulated old houses that cost a fortune to heat. Many of them say they pretty much wear jackets inside all winter, along with whatever heavy clothes they can stand.

A hard rain's gonna fall.

[DollyM]

5. We kept the heat at 55 all winter long . . .

I grimace every time I get my Wisconsin Gas and Electric bill when I see the couple of bucks I pay every month for the "low income Wisconsin residents fund" knowing we were those low income Wisconsin residents but that there wasn't enough "fund" to go around to help everyone who truly qualified. (Got my last WGE bill yesterday as we moved to Illinois last week. Yes, it's warmer in the summer here but it's also warmer in the winter in Southern Illinois so that will help.) My grandparents heated their house with a pot belly stove most all of their lives and burned wood and coal. I don't ever remember being cold there but I do remember standing with my backside toward the stove, next to Grandfather who was also warming his backside. Some of my fondest memories actually. We have a fire place in our house and when our heat and eletric bills doubled last year due to the the expiration of the 10 year rate cap by Illinois Power, we burned wood and wore sweaters and gloves inside the house to survive the winter. I don't notice the cold as much anymore here since we keep the heat low and burn wood. Wisconsin it did get a mite uncomfortable on those sub zero days which we rarely see in southern Illinois. We do have plenty of trees on our property though so I think burning wood will be the way to go. I have seen the pellet stoves advertised but the upfront cost is pretty high so I don't think we will be doing that anytime soon.

[Connonym]

6. Dolly, what part of Sourthern IL?

I spent my grade school years in Danville, which isn't really southern southern IL but southern-ish IL

[DollyM]

8. Danville pretty far north of here . . .

Sorry but I don't think we would consider Danville southern Illinois down in this part of the world. We are located somewhat close to Mt. Vernon as far as the nearest big city. It is almost 90 degrees today so I am going to hang out the clothes to dry and grill outside after while to keep from heating up the kitchen. Those are the things I like about living in southern Illinois.

[Connonym]

9. well, southern Illinois sounds better than "almost Indiana"

Danville is certainly not god's little Eden on earth. Lived there from age 4-12.