(I said I’d only post thrice weekly, but I didn’t say which days those would be. Did I?)

So we have this Stir Crazy popcorn machine that you dump the oil and popcorn into and it heats up and stirs the kernels with two wire thingies, only we’ve had it for several years and the black coating is starting up peel up off the surface, and I never know where it goes. Which means we’re eating it. And I went to price a new one and the silly things are forty dollars? Who needs that?! So for my regular Sunday Night Popcorn I decided to do the do-it-yourself variety. After all, if Civilization As We Know It suddenly goes under, I don’t want to be without my popcorn.*

Here’s my improvisation:

1. In a big pan with a big lid, combine two tablespoons of oil with half a cup of popcorn. Turn the burner on high, shake every ten seconds or so, and put the lid on when it starts to pop.

2. Dump in bowl and add salt.

3. Eat.

It worked like a charm. At laaaast, we’re free from the tyrannical oppresion of the evil Stir Crazy popcorn regime. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever use it again, but we don’t need to. How nice to learn to make do. We won’t ever be entirely free of the need to buy something or other, but for many things we can grow it, or store it, or make it happen our own way.

*In case of such a collapse, I don’t want to be going without much of anything, which is part of the reason we’re doing all this. Emma and I were talking about how nice it would be to be snowed in for two months, since we have everything we need. I said I’d like to try it for two days first to see how well everything functions. Even if society continues on its oblivious downward spiral for a hundred years and nothing catastrophic ever happens, which I consider so unlikely as to be impossible, I will still have enjoyed living the way we live in our mountain home.