{"id":33569,"date":"2017-10-24T02:06:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T09:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/?p=33569"},"modified":"2017-10-24T07:19:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T14:19:51","slug":"20-gallons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/24\/20-gallons\/","title":{"rendered":"20 gallons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… and it took me only the better part of the year.<\/p>\n

When the world’s most spectacular Christmas present<\/a> — a shiny new Honda Eu200i generator — landed on my doorstep last December, I rushed right out and bought four five-gallon gas cans to feed it.<\/p>\n

I bought those, and a cover, and some spare parts with an existing generator fund started by yet another kind friend. People are so good.<\/p>\n

I filled two cans right away with non-ethanol gas treated with Sta-Bil<\/a>*. The other two cans were to be filled with much more durable avgas on the recommendation of the generator-giver.<\/p>\n

But … life. I had the two empty cans in the back of Old Blue on a February trip that took me near two airports (airports, you will not be surprised to learn, are where avgas lives). Then Old Blue went fatally haywire. Making it to an airport was the last thing on my mind.<\/p>\n

So two empty cans sat for months while I was on foot. Then, after I bought the hamster car, they sat for months more while I spent all my money (and a few other people’s) on the final major structural repairs to the house. What a glorious, and sometimes terrifying, adventure that was!<\/p>\n

The Hamster not being the best vehicle for porting volatile chemicals and the gas station with the non-ethanol fuel being alllllllll the way over in the next town, I procrastinated. (Thoughts of venturing to an airport had long left my head.) But I managed to get one can filled and treated last month.<\/p>\n

Then this afternoon, it was summer again. Glorious, blue-sky, no-cloud, 66-degree summer (and this after two fierce wind-and-rain storms last week).<\/p>\n

In the cause of doing anything to get away from the computer and out of the house, I packed up Ava, and the final gas can, and after dawdling around for an hour at a waterfront park, I finally — finally<\/em> — took that last gas can to fulfill its destiny.<\/p>\n

Now my winter preps are complete.<\/p>\n

Except for building a makeshift blind for the exterior west wall of the screen porch. Because despite optimism and unicorns, screens do not keep out 40 mph winds or the wet stuff they carry with them. (But because optimism and unicorns have never been my thing, I expected that and already have materials for the blind on hand.) <\/p>\n

So far, the bigger north wall of the screen porch (the most sheltered wall and the least windy side of the house) is keeping Mother Nature out just fine. And I am still loving to sit out there in the evenings, though these days it’s usually with the aid of an afghan and sometimes a space heater.<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

* Which, after seeing that low Amazon price, I will never buy at my local hardware store again, not even on their best sale.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… and it took me only the better part of the year. When the world’s most spectacular Christmas present — a shiny new Honda Eu200i generator — landed on my doorstep last December, I rushed right out and bought four five-gallon gas cans to feed it. I bought those, and a cover, and some spare parts with an existing generator fund started by yet another kind friend. People are so good. I filled two cans right away with non-ethanol gas treated with Sta-Bil*. The other two cans were to be filled with much more durable avgas on the recommendation of…<\/p>\n

Continue reading20 gallons<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preparedness","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33569"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33577,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33569\/revisions\/33577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}