Last night, after power was restored, I spent the remainder of the evening getting upset. I walked through my house & turned off lights that were left on, & anything electric that wasn't being used. The power had only been restored for not even an hour & it was already being misused & wasted.
I sat outside on my deck in the dark, under the moonlight, which was the only light available for a few days. How easy it is to go back to the same habits as before.
Today I took a five minute shower. Then I read that a normal ten minute shower uses a minimum of 25 gallons of water. Unreal! Over the last four days, that amount hadn't even been used. I definitely had stayed within the allotted 1-gallon per person per day.
So that means my shower probably used at least 12 gallons. My next shower is going to be three minutes. I want to start being more disciplined so that when I have to live like that again, it won't be as challenging or stressful.
There's supposed to be rain coming, so my next goal is to be sure both rain barrels fill & don't leak. I'm also going to fill the water containers now that I can use the hose.
Disaster preparedness is something I always took seriously, but I still feel I could have been more prepared.