Case of nerves

Am I the only one getting a little nervous here?  I wonder if it's because I'm on my own these days...........but yesterday the talk on the radio talk show, the "Round Table", was that the projection for gas prices is $5-6/gallon.   OK, I don't drive far, I can probably deal with that, but the price of OIL and of ELECTRICITY  will go up as well.  And those are things that I do have to have.  they predict that we are going to be feeling the pinch, and soon.

So my brain is struggling to figure out how this will work.   

I do have some savings, but not a nest egg that makes me feel untouchable, for sure.

I can't just get in my car and drive to warmer climates, I have dogs, and a cat.  Not to mention that driving long distances at my age is daunting.  After a couple of hours, I remove my stiff body from the car, and imagine that I am a pretzel for the duration.

I can't move in with any of my kids, for the same reason.........either they don't have animals in their house, and don't want any, or they have too many animals already, and more would be pandemonium.  Anyway, it would be unfair to my own.

Someone suggested that I do major work on my house to insulate.  Well, that is difficult.  My house is a post and beam....the studio built in 1790, the main part of the house in 1810.  There are NO studs, and no spaces for insulation.  The walls are wood on wood on wood.....siding, wood wall, lathe and plaster..........so the only way to insulate is to stud up the inside walls.....making all the windows "set in", insulate, put up dry wall, plaster and paint.

You hear the sound of $$$$$, right?  Because I do.  The price of construction materials is out of this world....so to stud up all the outside walls, on the inside of the house, would be quite the pricey venture.

There are also SIPs......which are structural insulation panels, that you put on the outside of your house.......and the windows are "set in", but on the outside of the house instead of the inside.....and again.....astronomical prices.

I could BUY a wood stove.....more $$......would need a special chimney built.....and then I would have to BUY wood, and I would have to haul it in, tend the fire, etc.  I have done all that before, several times in my life, but I sure was a lot younger.

I could sell the house, but buyers would also be thinking that they would have to heat this big old place.  And every time I see a house that I might be interested in, it is gone within the week.......there are a whole group of people looking to buy, perusing the market daily, and jumping on anything good in my price range.

The one thing that might work is to shut off most of the house, turn the heat way, way down there, and live in just the studio, which is the sunniest, warmest, easiest to heat part of the house.  It would be somewhat restrictive, and I would definitely not like it much, but it might be my only option.  Unfortunately.

We are, as a culture, very spoiled, I know.  And that includes me.  

I love my huge, old house, and I love that I can ramble around it all on long winter days.

I have been blessed to have done it all these years, I know.

But maybe not this coming year, eh???

No photos today.  Just me, thinking out loud.

What are you all going to do???   Because we are all in this together.