What a Life!

Did you know that people are going to be saving lots of money on heating bills this winter? Steve said he hear Rush Limbaugh talking about this yesterday. It seems people will be saving money on heating bills just like the Democrats structure their spending cuts in Congress. Instead of heating bills being 40% higher than they were last year, as was predicted after Katrina hit last summer, people are only going to see increases of 6 to 21% this year. Think of all the money everyone will be saving!

We have yet to see our first real heating bill, but after the weather we’ve had since Thanksgiving, I think we’ll be finding out real soon what our realities will be this winter. They say you save 1 to 3% on your heating bill for every degree you turn your thermostat down, depending on who you listen to. Well, we’re running ours on 65.

At the beginning of the cold season, I complained when we had it on 68 because I had a sore throat when I woke up in the morning. Obviously my body has somehow adjusted because I no longer have that problem, and the thermostat is set even lower. I still am not wearing long johns during the day, though I have been known to wear two shirts. Also, it is warmer in the basement than it is upstairs so we spend a bit more time down there.

But this is what you’re not going to believe. Our thermostat is set on 62, and yet Ben refuses to wear anything on his feet. If I put socks and shoes on him, he takes them off. I cannot figure out why. His feet aren’t cold, though, so I am trying not to worry. We do make sure he wears socks to bed, and usually he still has them on when he wakes up in the morning.

I know his socks seem to be getting a bit small, and I need to buy him some new ones. But I can’t imagine that that would be why he takes them off all of the time. I dress him in long sleeve shirts and his wool pants – perhaps it’s that he is more active than I am that he stays warm. I seem to be warmest when I’m sitting on the couch with my knitting on my lap…something about having the couch behind me helps me stay warm. Ben spends very little time sitting on the couch, if you know what two-year-olds are like.

So I will be interested to see what our heating bills are like this winter. If, in fact, they are a mere 6% higher than last year and we manage to save 6% by turning down the thermostate 3 degrees, our highest bill may top out around $140. We had just one over $100 last year. The previous year, we had two over $100 but they were both under $110. We shall see.

It’s supposed to warm up into the 40’s this weekend, after two weeks of freezing temperatures and snow that had not had any opportunities to melt. I know it’s winter and that it’s silly of me to wish it would warm up so the snow would melt, but I wish that just the same. For now, here is a picture I took from our front door this morning.