Roughin' It

So I returned yesterday to my humble abode in Centennial to find that the water had been shut off for the "winter" (even though fall just started). With temps hovering in the mid-twenties and snow blowing all over, there was a real danger that the pipes would freeze and burst. So I showed up late at night here to find an indoor ambient temperature of forty degrees, a pile of wood, and no running water.

So I've had to make some drastic changes in my routine, and quickly. I reuse alot of silverware and dishes. I don't shower much. I try to use the bathroom whenever I'm in town or over at somebody's house. I eat straight out of the pan to reduce plate usage. I spend alot of time with my feet on top of the wood stove so I can move my toes. And I listen to alot of Mannheim Steamroller Christmas hoping that Santa will come and deliver me with running water.

Seriously, though, have you ever been in a home where it got below sixty degrees, ever? Most people have not. It's absurd. Congealed olive oil is NOT SEXY. It curdles, but it still tastes amazing, and it's actually a boon in disguise because it doesn't drip as much. Pork and beans CAN FREEZE and I have a dream that one day I will drive away an intruder (OK, I'm really just hoping for some company) by throwing a frozen block of beans at him. In a couple months, true irony will set in: my fridge could actually be WARMING items to keep them from freezing in the air of the cold empty cabin. It's modern technology, turned on its head.

Needless to say, I dont venture outside very much. I have on a Snuggie about 70% of the time. I usually take it off when I leave the house though. I am actually pondering getting a TV, something that this cabin has never had. Although I'm not sure if I could get any channels; most of the radio stations are pretty staticky (and Dad took the satellite radio).

And this is just day 2.

Into the Wild: Day 2

Hello, let me introduce myself. I am a twenty-eight year-old physician who recently retired after deciding that internal medicine is not for me. I moved in with my parents yesterday; we live in a small cabin thirty miles outside of Laramie, Wyoming. It is two miles to the nearest town (Centennial, population one hundred) which boasts a 33.333333:1 person:bar ratio and some of the finest rural postcards you have ever seen. I didn't know how to get the bar over the 3's in the last sentence, as it is my first time blogging. This is one of the skills I hope to acquire over the next few months.
Allow me to show you my humble abode. Please use your imagination as digital photography and the uploading thereof the the World Wide Web is another pending skill. My parents live in this beautiful 600 square foot cabin on a heavily wooded, riverfront lot. We have a pond stocked with fish and some type of algae film on the top. In the springtime, moose and bears are plentiful in our front yard.
I currently reside in this beautiful Companion brand camper in our back yard. My parents borrowed it from a neighbor for me to stay in, as they evidently believe I'm too old to be living with them again. My camper is nice; it has a bed, a living room/dining room/kitchen, and a nonfunctional bathroom. The ceilings were clearly built for me; at 6'6'', they are exactly my height. The camper is outfitted with a Japanese-made tape player replete with misspelled words. It was made before they figured out how to change sides automatically, forcing me to stand up, bend my head over so as not to hit the ceiling, and remove and replace the tape.
When I moved in to the camper, I hit the jackpot. Not expecting any decent, functional tapes to be around the camper, I was surprised to find not only LeeAnn Womack and Faith Hill, but also an old Tanya Tucker cassette. Wait a second... behind the tape player I also found a single of Coolio's timeless classic Gangsta's Paradise. This brought back some memories: Michelle Pfeiffer, "what the heck is karate?" and music before high school football games my freshman year. I popped in the tape, remembered that I had to rewind it, and gave it three listens in a row, listening to the B Side (Gangsta's Paradise: The Instrumental Version) between each take. Unfortunately, I am so out of shape, and the altitude is so high, I had to stop my enthusiastic singing before the chorus each time and place my head between my knees to keep from blacking out. I hope this will improve with time.