Saturday, April 04, 2020

Cabin Fever

Gotta wonder if the current COVID-19 craziness has pointed out a big problem in the tiny house movement. Just like those microapartments you read about in ginormous (and expensive) cities like Tokyo and New York did explicitly, the tiny house movement may have implicitly assumed that the residents won't actually spend all that much time in their abodes.

The Spousal Unit and I are really fortunate: a four bedroom tri-level in a semi-rural neighborhood near Denver Colorado. But even then, we get our share of cabin fever. If we were stuck together in a tiny house, we'd be posting photographs of us holding the daily newspaper just to prove we hadn't killed each other.

IMG_3933

(I'm not the only one thinking about this: "Homes Actually Need To Be Practical Now" and "Trapped at Home With People You Met On Craigslist", both in my favorite magazine, The Atlantic.)

2 comments:

Paul Moorman said...

It's a testament to our human race that we're being told "Stay at Home" at the same time we're encouraged to get out and walk the dog, it's OK to make a trip to the grocery store (well duh) and visit a State Park, as long as we maintain a decent distance from each other. It should be called "Stay the Hell Away from Each Other", which is really what we're trying to accomplish. So why "Stay at Home"? Because that takes no thought or decision-making prowess. Constantly evaluating each situation we're in or will be in during the next minute or two, and then making good decisions is not something the human race is famous for demonstrating. So while some people should be taking no risk (e.g. elderly with medical conditions), the vast majority of us don't have to quarantine ourselves 100% of the time. Just "Stay the Hell Away from Each Other".

But if you do quarantine, start your car and let it run a bit every few days to keep the battery charged.

Chip Overclock said...

I've taken to putting both our Subarus on the battery charger once a month. We have both had to replace the batteries in our cars a couple of times since we each purchased them in 2016. Not only do our Subarus have the usual electronics - key fob receiver, alarm system, etc. - but we were surprised to discover that each one periodically and autonomously runs a fuel system pressurization diagnostic; it was disconcerting the first time my Spousal Unit came in from the garage and announced that my WRX was "doing something", and since then we have heard the same mechanical whine coming from hers. But even so, the couple of times a week I have reason to drive - grocery, take-out, etc. - I have started taking the longer, more scenic route home, not just for my car's sake, but for mine.