Counting chickens early?

Guess it's natural. My financial outlook is improving. I'm figuring on the new job that my take-home pay will leave me with over $1400 a month to live on. That's after regular bills but before electric, transportation or food. If I keep my general expenses at around $100 a week, I'll be doing well. If I can pick up occasional shifts with the agencies, I'll be doing great.

I have priorities, of course. Getting sufficient electricity back on. I've certainly had time to debate the issue of whether to have grid power turned back on or gradually go straight to solar and wind. I'm opting for the latter. I've lived this long without grid power, so going straight for that would be a matter of impatience. Right now, Harbor Freight has 45 watt panels on special for $160 until 8/22/11. I still have a little catching up to do but figure I can buy two of those sets by that time. In time, I can get marine batteries at a rate of two per month. They cost less than $70 each at Walmart. Hopes are that by the time I have 10-12 batteries, that should be enough to provide basic power 24/7. I will have to add more for A/C and refrigeration. I'll need at least one wind generator for cloudy periods.

Have to make transportation a priority. Going to save up money and get something driveable and pay cash for it. Take a couple of months to save up enough for something. When I can, I also want to get a motor trike as backup. They're not fast but get up to 80 mpg and can be bought for less than $4000 new.

Sounds like I'm being selfish and wanting to go on a shopping spree. Really, I'm thinking in long and practical terms. Solar and wind power cost up front but save money in the long term. A motor trike is safer than a bike or scooter and my daughter would be likely to ride it without great fear. Not good for winter but okay for much of the year.

Didn't get as much done as planned today. Just too hot. Had to go pay some bills this morning. Missed the return bus by about 2 minutes, so wound up waiting 45 minutes in the heat for the next one. Wiped out, took a nap when I got home. Going to get up early and do more in the morning.

Had to paint back over the vines I painted the other day. After the paint dried, it turned much darker and looked creepy at night. Mixed white paint with green and it looks much better now.

Harvested the rest of the onions today. Some came out a fairly decent size for the type I planted. Most were small and none will keep too long because they all wound up seeding. Of course, the advantage is that I have hundreds, maybe thousands of seeds. And the onion tops added a full bucket of material to the compost pit. That was after saving enough to use as bug repellant in the garden.

Price on rice flour is coming down slowly. Bought some this week and made brownies today. Came out good! Can't tell they're gluten free. And okay, yes, I was baking on the hottest day this year. But I was outside In the shade while they were baking. i needed the sugar.

Now I need sleep to get up in the morning.