I wish I hadn’t opened it. Now I’m a mess. It is more than double what it could reasonably be expected to be. I don’t have a prayer of paying it this month even if I were the praying sort.
Fear — What if this is just one curve in the downward spiral to hell that I find our finances in? What if we end up homeless in the street raiding dumpsters behind restaurants to feed the kids? What if this gets worse instead of better?
Rage — I told them to turn those damned electric mattress pads off when they get up in the morning. I told them to turn the damn lights off when they leave a room. What is the matter with them? Why doesn’t anyone listen to me?
Reason — This can not be due to electric mattress pads, mostly because it is the natural gas portion of the bill that is from hell. It must be something else. Get to the bottom of it. Fix it. All is not lost.
Bewilderment — We just replaced the heating and air system. This is a brand spanking new furnace that should be using half the gas the old one used. Instead it is using double. Or is it the water heater? I’ve been thinking I smelled gas every time I’ve been in the utility room lately. Did I really bake that much the week of Christmas? Is my oven screwed up? How can this be when we weren’t even home for a week during the holidays? WTF?
Fear again — Maybe we got screwed when we bought the new furnace.
Reason again — Nah. The electric bill really was cut in half when we ran the air conditioner after getting the new system so they weren’t lying about that. It must be something else.
Irrational Worries — There really is a God and He hates me.
Plan — Figure this out. Write numerous articles about it. First find out how much power two electric mattress pads and one electric blanket use. Figure out if it would be cost-effective to buy timers to put them on so they aren’t running 24/7 and causing me to rage at my kids and spouse every afternoon when I discover them still on. Call the furnace guys to come look at their installation and make sure it’s been hooked up properly. Write an article on furnace maintenance. Call utility company to come read the meter again and check for a gas leak. Look into replacing the water heater and write an article about water heaters. Figure out how to bake Christmas cookies on the grill outside and write an article about that.
Conclusion — Go back to bed and try again tomorrow.
9 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 4, 2008 at 1:22 pm
thelittlefluffycat
Call the utility company, don’t wait.
January 4, 2008 at 1:23 pm
thelittlefluffycat
oop–forgot–{{{you}}}
January 4, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Ina
Definitely write articles about every aspect of it. It helps to work everything out, from our feelings to solutions. Not to mention our skills get better and someone may want to pay us for this stuff some day.
I’m going to go write an article about my bladder being full, right now.
January 4, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Andrea
The Trane guy was at my house withing an hour of my phone call to their office. He checked the furnace. He checked for gas leaks and gas pressure. The problem is not with the new furnace. He did adjust the “droop setting” on our thermostat.
He also reminded of us of how important it is to keep the intake filter clean which is no small feat in a house with seven animals. Still, it is unlikely that a dirty filter doubled my heating bill compared to this period last year when we still had a 30 year old furnace.
I’m still waiting for the utility company to show up. I only have two other things that use gas: the water heater and the stove. If there is no leak and they did not screw up reading our meter I’ll be shopping for a new water heater.
January 5, 2008 at 9:54 am
pandemonic
It’s winter. When you turn on your furnace, you are automatically screwed, even if you keep your heat on to just above the level of the pipes freezing.
January 5, 2008 at 10:15 am
thelittlefluffycat
I wasn’t thinking about the gas leak as much as I was about letting them know that you might need a workaround on the bill.
Guess I shoulda been thinking about the gas leak…
January 6, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Andrea
They be coming to read the meter again and see if they are possibly in error. One can hope.
January 16, 2008 at 11:05 am
Andrea
Good news! The bill was an error. We are being issued a corrected bill.
January 17, 2008 at 6:50 am
Know Your Neighbors
There are several states in the process of deregulation of electricity and natural gas, which means your bill WILL be lower. The process of deregultaiton is to open the market to competition. A by product of that is that prices will go down. Depending on which state you are in, electricity and natural gas may be deregulated already. If so, you SHOULD switch. In most cases, it is FREE TO SWITCH, and YOU WILL SAVE MONEY.
If you are in Texas, Illinois, or New York there is a company called Ambit Energy Service – http://www.ambitenergyservice.net that offers electricity and natural gas at a reduced rate. Your provider (the company that maintains the lines) remains the same. The ONLY difference is who you write the check to, and that check will be significantly lower than what you are paying now – even with an error in “accounting”.