Upon returning to the east coast after six years on the other side of the country, I started to notice a few small differences in accents and words. I’m sure many are familiar with the Boston accent, so I will not delve into that. Instead, I’m talking about word choices. Last month, a newspaper ad for a co-op bank was featured in the local newspaper. The co-op describes itself as a bank “not for the poor or wealthy, but for the thrifty and industrious” (italics mine). I have not seen the words “thrifty” and “industrious” used in ads in San Francisco. Someone out there could probably prove me wrong, but my point is that those words were not prominently used. I will now make a sweeping generalization: it must be a New England or a Yankee thing. People in the Northeast do not have it easy. The weather turns harsh, food cannot be easily grown all year round. In the old days, people had to do thrifty things like make quilts, split firewood and can vegetables. There are leaves to rake and snow to shovel. Combine the harsh environment with Puritan roots and the words like “thrift” “prudence” and “industry” became the favored adjectives. That’s my half baked theory, anyways.

As winter approaches and the air gets colder, our thoughts turn to the heating bill. We have a hot water heating system that feeds into radiators. The system runs on oil, and we have two large oil tanks in our basement.

oil tank

For cost, ethical and environmental reasons, we’d like to minimize our use of oil. So last weekend, we spent some time wrapping the larger water pipes with insulation.

pipes1

The insulation is fiberglass with a paper wrapping. On the inside of the paper is a foil liner to reflect heat back towards the pipe. We even wrapped the hot water tanks (for showers and hot water) with an insulating jacket. I must say, after several hours of doing this, I felt thrifty and industrious.