At 05:35 PM 8/17/03 -0400, Martha Krieg wrote: >We did relearn that candles are insufficient for serious reading, however.
You have to get the candle in just the right position -- which, with modern furniture, might be difficult. Also helps to use more than one candle per person. I think I remember using three candles to read by when we last had a blackout long enough to get to the candle cupboard. One would probably have done it if I'd had a proper candle stand. Seems to me that when I was a child, we would gather around a lamp set on the kitchen table, and lay our books under the lamp. Veering to another branch of the thread, I still distrust flashlights even though our rechargeable is much more reliable than flashlights used to be, so I keep a candle in a holder and a tin of matches where I can find them by touch. Our excessive centralization, in addition to making blackouts bigger and longer, also makes them worse by making them rarer, so that fewer people are equipped to handle it. We have traded a flock of minor inconveniences for a few major disasters. Whenever you try to be absolutely safe, you are setting yourself up. -- Joy Beeson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. where it was sunny and warm today. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
