Do We Need It or Do We Just THINK We Need It?

[Spartana]

On the other hand internet is dirt cheap. It is currently costing me under $16 a month for DSL. Now that may adjust upward some after a year so it's more like $22 a month. But that is still less than my landline phone with NO long distance absolute minimum base plan costs (it is over $30 a month with all the taxes, talk about a rip off).

I agree - interenet would be cheaper for me than a landline too BUT (BIG BUT!) I get addicted to the I.N. and have a hard time pulling myself away. So I choose not to have it at home and am much better at regulating myself and have to actually go out to get online. So I end up doing other stuffwith just a short time online and I'm not spending all day in front of a box. Except for the last couple of days because I'm at my sister's... it's raining... I'm sick... my knee hurts...I'm tired... there's ice cream here..gas prices are high... Bin Laden may rise from the dead and I'm scared to go outside...um... what other excuses are there for staying in and sitting on my butt all day ?!

[Jemima]

I consider high-speed internet essential, not quite a need, but very important to me. I dislike shopping and order everything possible online, thus saving lots of gas and time. It also comes in handy when the mail carrier fails to leave what I call 'The Weekly Wad', the roll of sales flyers which includes supermarkets and pharmacies, since I can look up the sales sheets online. And there are friends who are scattered all over the country. There is no library to which I can walk and the one where I have a card is half an hour drive away.

So much depends on one's lifestyle. I plan to retire soon and it seems as if I come across something every day that I'll no longer need to do or buy. Over the weekend, I caught myself putting plastic sandwich bags on my grocery list when it hit me that I'll be using far fewer of them in two months and the current box of 100 will likely last beyond my retirement date. (My first thought was that I'd need them for muffins, but I realized I wouldn't be making muffins much either when I'm not packing lunches.) Today it was mascara, which I only wear when going out in public, and since most of my interests are home based, like gardening, reading, and sewing, I'll likely only wear it once or twice a week.

I'm looking forward to letting my gray hair come in and never having to buy hair dye or do my roots again. A number of times I've wondered if I really need to put money aside for a replacement washer and dryer, since I plan to live in jeans and T-shirts, which can be washed by hand fairly easily. There are several laundromats in the area for things like my comforter, which would be a bear to wash by hand. (Please don't bring up clotheslines. I have tendonitis and reaching up hurts. I also have an electric can-opener for that reason, another "essential".) I'll probably buy far fewer books since I'll have time to use the county library's bookmobile.

Just thinking about being free of my HSSJ in two months is the best entertainment I've come across in years!

[mm1970]

Big houses! I am amazed at the number of people who scoff at the size of my house (or the house next door, for sale), both at about 1000-1100sf. They go on and on about how somewhere else you can get a bigger house.

These are the same people who called me "spoiled" when I said I prefer not to drive 10 miles one way on the weekend to visit friends, because I drive that to work every day.

Um, no, I think YOU are spoiled by cheap gas and cheap cars.

[heydude]

regarding heating and cooling.

your body changes. if you stay in a warm house in the summer, guess what? your body changes.

if you stay in a cold house in the winter, guess what? your body changes?

i take the bus year round, stand out in the cold in the winter and the heat in the summer. as a response to this, my body changes, i never get as cold anymore like everyone else cause i'm used to standing in it and i never get really hot either like everyone else since i stand in it so much.

[loosechickens]

I totally agree, heydude.......we have always made a special point of exposing our bodies to a wide variety of temperatures, and the result is that we are comfortable when it's cold and comfortable when it's hot.....the body just adjusts.

I see all these people all the time who are practically "too cold" at 71 degrees, and "too hot" at 74.....unless they have that constant 73 degrees they are used to, they are uncomfortable. I think that central heating and airconditioning has really robbed our bodies of the ability to develop adaptability to both cold and heat. I never want to lose that ability myself.

We seldom have heat OR air conditioning in our motorhome, since we are pretty comfortable from about 55 - 95 indoors, and we're seldom where temps aren't within that range. We haven't experienced really cold weather for about 18 years now, well below freezing, etc., so I'm sure we have lost the ability that I used to have, living in northern PA, of going around all winter wearing not much more than a heavy wool LL Bean shirt/jacket. I'm sure I would feel the cold badly these days.

[catherine]

regarding heating and cooling.

your body changes. if you stay in a warm house in the summer, guess what? your body changes.

if you stay in a cold house in the winter, guess what? your body changes?

i take the bus year round, stand out in the cold in the winter and the heat in the summer. as a response to this, my body changes, i never get as cold anymore like everyone else cause i'm used to standing in it and i never get really hot either like everyone else since i stand in it so much.

That's true! My son was a teaching golf pro, and he worked in VT for a few months and then would go to Florida. Boy, he was SO crabby when he got south of Jacksonville because he could not stand the mugginess after being in VT. Conversely, my son who lives in Burlington VT comes home to NJ for winter holidays and will often hang out outside with his T-shirt on. 46 degrees in the NE is a heat wave compared to typical temperatures in Burlington!

I noticed also when our central air just went dead and I refused to get a new one, I really didn't mind the summers that much after a while. We did put a small AC unit in my home office and DH and I would seek refuge on the futon on nights that were really bad, I liked having that connection to nature. You could open doors and windows and hear birds and feel breezes--all of which was a nice trade-off vs being hermetically sealed in a 70 degree comfort zone.

[puglogic]

I agree with this too. Whenever we turn up our thermostat beyond 65 degrees in the winter (for example, when a relative is visiting) I feel like I'm going to overheat. Others come to our house and bundle up in sweaters and fuzzy slippers and ask how we stand it. I love the cross-ventilation of having windows open in the summer nights...and the night sounds. Being sealed in an air-conditioned space wouldn't be good for me.

[ApatheticNoMore]

These are the same people who called me "spoiled" when I said I prefer not to drive 10 miles one way on the weekend to visit friends, because I drive that to work every day.

Um, no, I think YOU are spoiled by cheap gas and cheap cars.

Or just lonely :\

[Zemma]

I agree with someone else who said - lights on in the daytime. There is a variation of light levels throughout any house and I don't mind this. People ask how I can put up with 'the gloom', but to me it's just natural light that changes throughout the day. Our house is actually very light, with big windows etc. But it does vary as the sun moves around. It's the unnatural light of a light bulb I don't like and during the day and it only gives a bit extra light anyway.

And unless I 'need' light (for cooking or reading etc) I am very happy to have natural light into the early evening too - I find it peaceful. Actually, I don't put lights on at night to go to the toilet or out to the sheds either, but that's because I like the feeling of the natural light (there's always some) and navigating in the dark - I know that's probably a step too far for a lot of people though!

[Mrs-M]

Originally posted by Zemma.
I don't put lights on at night to go to the toilet

I'm the same. I even used to tackle diaper changes in the dark, working by way of what little light streamed through the window of the nursery, which at times, was just like threading a needle. Baby's tiny little feet would get lost inside rubber pants, so I'd have to go fishing for them by sticking my fingers inside the elastic leg holes to find them. Once I had a hold of a set of little toes, I'd drag those toes (foot and all) out through the holes! LOL! And I never once stuck any of my kids with a pin!