Alicia Curtis hopes she can sleep in her own bed this winter. The 22-year-old Dexter woman and her husband spent last winter sleeping on an air mattress on the living room floor of her in-laws’ home. Their 4-year-old daughter slept in the spare bedroom.

Make no mistake, Curtis was glad to be there. She loves her in-laws and was lucky to have a warm place for her family to go, because 20 miles away her own home was cold.

“We just couldn’t keep enough oil in the tank,” Curtis said this week from her in-laws’ home in Newport where she was visiting.

So Curtis and her husband drained the pipes of their Dexter trailer and moved in with his parents.

“Don’t get me wrong – we love it here and we visit all the time, but I’d like to be able to live in my own home for the winter,” she said.

Curtis is one of about 4,000 people in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties who already have applied for assistance this winter through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

The LIHEAP season doesn’t officially begin until Sunday.

“I’d say that so far we have about 1,000 more applicants than we normally do this time of year,” Jennifer Giosia, Penquis CAP division manager of client services and benefits, said. “People are definitely scared.”

They have reason to be.

If LIHEAP funding rates stay the same as last year, qualifying homeowners will receive about $480. That won’t pay for even one full tank of oil at today’s prices.

Unless Congress agrees to increase LIHEAP funding, qualifying homeowners may receive even less money as more people are applying and qualifying for the funds.

It has been painful to watch the damage and suffering that sprang from Hurricane Katrina, and while the people in the gulf still need our help, it may be time to start looking toward our own neighbors as another Maine winter knocks on the door.

Churches, food pantries and homeless shelters are all gearing up for the long-reaching effects of fuel prices.

“Obviously some people are going to be choosing between heating their homes, eating right and taking their medications,” Giosia said. “We will try to do our best to monitor those people that we can, because it truly does become a life-threatening issue.”

I don’t know about you, but it’s starting to get a bit nippy at my house in the morning. Already I’m casting longing glances toward the thermostat. My husband and I undoubtedly will get into a few arguments about the temperature of the house this winter.

Some of my friends are debating closing off certain rooms in their homes in order to conserve heat.

I have to be truthful. I don’t know what it’s like to not have a warm enough house. I suspect I would go out of my mind if I knew my children were cold in their own home.

Alicia Curtis just found out she was expecting another baby. I will be thinking of her this winter and hoping that somehow she and her family can manage to heat their home and that she can sleep in her own bed this winter.