The fun news of the 'morn was that we are up to 1.2 millions runs of my program. This just cockels my warm heart! The purpose of a web site is to get hits, right?
When we first moved to the 'farm' we lived in the guest cottage. The guest cottage had been a chicken coop until the 50's, when someone got married and they needed another 'house.' It was large for a New York apartment,and small for our family. We made it an adventure.
At first we had no water pressure, 30 minutes would give us 2 inches of lukewarm water in the tub. We also had no stove, and no kitchen sink. We did have a rice cooker, so things were not all bad.
PBS has a wonderful show on called The 1900 House. The basic premise is that they downgraded a London suburban house to the level of 1900, and found a family of optimistic suckers/adventure seekers to come live like a middle class family of the age for three months.
The phrases 'dirty' and 'skanky' have made an appearence, as well as the delightful economy of going without underwear 'in order to save on washing up time.' Heck, if you need an excuse that's okay, but really now... going free just makes good sense.
When we first moved to the Farm, we lived in the cottage, and that is where we had our fridge. The sink was in the house. We didn't have a stove, but you can do a lot with a rice cooker and a microwave.
It is in the nature of optimistic suckers/adventure seekers to have pollyanish dreams, but it is still horrifying/funny to watch these poor folks in their initial (short lived!) happy and optimistic state, versus the next day. It is also a wonder at how much a good bath after a week of skank can improve one's mood!
I felt just darn pooped when I got off work, so I did the paradoxical thing, and went to the gym and worked my tush, hard. Dripped sweat all over the equipment, and felt my muscles bulge with power.
Some parts of that paragraph are true. I'll give you a hint: the word 'sweat' does figure into any true assesment of the experience. Words like 'bulging' and 'rippling' would be out of place.
Working out was the right thing to do. I feel better for the exertion, and spending an hour laughing at the self-imposed misfortune and delusions of an English family is enough to lift the spirits of the condemned!