Normally turning the heat on in our little corner cul-de-sac of the world would be just about the most boring thing EVER. Keep reading it still might be.
But it is November 16th and my official hold out had ended. I flipped the switch and cranked the thermostat up to 65 today. The heat was so rusty I could smell it turning on in Ava's closet. I'm not exactly sure why but I have been adamant this year about not using the heat. Honestly, I am not usually this much of a Puritan. So why the change this year?
1. I have Scottish blood. My mother loves to say it is our Scottish blood that sometimes makes us a little ridiculously frugal at times. Of course, her people were eating only potatoes at every meal when they coined this one.
2. My non-Scottish father used to play this game when I was a kid too. He would crank down the thermostat and we would complain. He would tell us to get our down vests on and quit complaining. We would tell him that normal people did not need a wool hat to watch tv. He would ask, "Where is your scarf?" In retaliation my mother bought a pair of gloves without fingers that she would sometimes don while making dinner if she was particularily pissed at him. (I find other couple's passive agressive gestures funny, not mine of course. Those are not funny.)
3. I have been suffiently scared by the gas company billboards and commericals urging all customers to get on the budget plan. (Which I know is a secret ploy to get us all to pay more throughout the course of the year. It is a large big brother scheme I've decided.)
4. I have paid $3.20 for a gallon of gas. Ok, today I paid $2.03 but whatever.
5. My friends look at me like I am slightly odd when Main Muffin Man tells them we have no heat. I like that. It makes me feel less suburban, more quirky.
6. Competition...Main Muffin Man keeps threatening to turn on the heat everytime I leave the house. He asks me questions like this out of the blue. "So honey, how much do you think we saved this fall...a whole $8.00?" Then he said this to me when I was away for the weekend 2 weeks ago. "I'm going to turn on the tv, watch 85 football games, and turn on the heat." Wow, some men only aspire to have an affair when the wife takes the kid to Grandma's for the weekend. Keep dreaming big, dear. (As luck would have it it was 65 degrees that weekend.)
So, today we celebrate the end of abstinence and chilly feet. Oh yeah, and the 5 month mark since our adoption papers have "logged in" in Beijing. That's another milestone for us today.
Do you want to hear about how I only paid $34.10 this month for the gas bill? Sorry, I know you don't.
2 comments:
I'm like this too. Last night - in San Antonio mind you where we've all become thin blooded and put on parka's when it's 60 outside - it got down to 40 DEGREES and I refused to turn the heat on. The cats sucked up to me in bed so close that I couldn't roll over. I was comfy though.
I play the same game! Since living in Atlanta, I have held off each year, on turning on the heat, until the week before Christmas. We do have an electric warming pad on our bed, a quartz heater near the computer and numerous afgans available when we sit and watch t.v. Also, the heat is generally off for the season by Feb. 14. Love to save those pennies!
Post a Comment