With the lowering temperatures, one thing continues to go up; our electric bill. It jumped up over $300 from November to December. This is thanks to the ineffecient base board heat that we are stuck with right now. Our gas logs should be put in around the 14th of January. Until then we are still surviving on the baseboards. Now I understand an increased bill, however, I would just like to be warm when I pay the bill. We were so sick about the power bill that we have decided to cut off all the heat in every room but one, our guest bedroom. We have moved a small TV and dvd player in that room and have started to sleep in the Guest room. The room is smaller and more easily able to control the heat, also the bed is smaller forcing us to stay closer and therefore warmer. This is fine and dandy, but it means that everywhere in the house it stays between 40 and 50 degrees. We run from the bedroom to the bathroom and back in the cold hallway. It is too cold to sit in our living room. We continually have running noses by the time we make ourselves a sandwich in the kitchen. By the time we get the sandwich fixed the florescent lights in the kitchen have heated up enough to turn on. It is like living in a dorm room again.
As if to add to the crazyness of this Winter, let me tell you more of the happenings. One day there was ice on our driveway. Most of the ice had started to melt at this time. I was smoking my pipe, and decided to go check the mailbox. As I am walking down the drive way, my feet hit a particularly slick part of the driveway. My feet decide to leave the ice and switch places with my head. I litterally have my feet fly into the air as I fall to the ground. The whole time this is happening I am thinking All I need now is for someone I know to see this. As I am sitting there moaning and trying to catch my breath, I look up and down the road to see if anyone is passing. I check my neighbors houses to see if anyone saw me. I am relieved to see that there were no cars passing and no neighbors watching. Then I look back to my own house to see my dogs and my wife looking out the front door. They had seen the entire thing, and you think I kid you but the pugs were laughing as loud as my wife. This snow and ice is going kill and bury my pride.
Last night, me and my wife decide to go out to help lift our spirits. We were both feeling a little down and decided to go to Macados to eat. It was a Friday night, so we could take our time, go to sleep with the knowledge that we had nothing to do the next day. We had a wonderful dinner. When we are done, my wife decided to order her a nice dessert. As we are waiting, we begin to talk about what we are going to do on Saturday. We talk about how we do not have to be anywhere, we don't have to do anything. Sarah says that this makes her more excited about her dessert. I was a little confused so I asked her why this made her more excited about her desert. She said "No idea." This cracked me up because usually I'm the one who says things and connects things that are in no way related.
Talking about food, Sarah made an interesting dinner tonight. She asked me if I would like to have Meatloaf. I told her that it sounded good, Sarah's meatloaf has always been awesome. Well, Sarah decided to make it a little different. I was in the hallway, and I heard her shaking something into the meatloaf. I would find out later it was a lot of oregeno. When dinner was served, I took a bite of the meatloaf. I had trouble eating anymore. I was not sure if I could finish it. So here we are, my wife and I, sitting in our little room eating dinner. I do not want to upset her, so I start eating my vegetables. Sarah notices, and looks at me. I am expecting her to say that she realized I didn't like the meatloaf. Instead, my wife looks into my eyes, smile slightly, and says "This is terrible!" I look back into her eyes and say "Yeah, yeah it is. It is awful." To which we both fall over laughing. I could not finish what I had, and she started to feel bad from eating it. I proceeded to go to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal. I think I now understand the excitement over the dessert. :)
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The Heat amongst the Cold
On New Years Eve this year, I spent the night playing board games at my friend's parents' house. It was a fun time. I found a new favorite game, Pit. I love it! It was great. I was able to see friends I don't get to see very often. One of these friends is my buddy Nathan. He reminded me of the interesting time I had when I went to see him in a play in Ohio. Let me tell you a story...
The time is October. The temperature is pretty cold (of course). My friend Scott and his wife have the opportunity to go see Nathan in a play in Cincinnati. Sarah and I say "Why not?" So we leave extremely early on a Saturday. We drive through mountains, valleys, towns, until we finally arrive in Ohio. It is about lunch time so we decide to go look for somewhere to eat. There doesn't seem to be a lot of people out on the streets. We find a little sandwich shop and eat some lunch. Then we meet Nathan before the play. He was in a performance of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It was very good.
After the play, Nathan had to do another performance before he would be done for the day. So we decided to go see what there was to do in Cincinnati. First we drove around looking for stuff. We started going out of the city into a very sketch residential neighborhood. I started to feel very uneasy. We then drove back into town and parked the car. We decide to walk around the town to find something to do. We litterally cannot find anything to do. Most of the places are closed, at 3 pm on a Saturday. I didn't understand it. There were hardly anyone out on the streets. We finally found a Starbucks open and containing a few signs of life. After spending about $10 on two cups of gourmet coffee, we decide to go back to the car. I'm about to freeze, the wind is whipping through the streets in between the large buildings. We sat in the car and waited for Nathan.
After we went out to eat, we headed to Nathan's apartment. This is where the fun will begin. He lives in a small two-room apartment. We get there to a heat I had not experienced in a long time. He had a radiator putting out heat that he could not turn up or down. It was extremely hot in this place. Scott, Lauren, Sarah, and I took over Nathan's kitchen for our air mattress. Scott and Lauren had a small air mattress at the foot of my air mattress. Sarah and I had a bigger one that required us to use a pump to inflate it. We get the air mattress in place and lay down to sleep. I am unable to sleep.
It is so hot that I am unable to sleep comfortably. Meanwhile, I hear everyone else sleeping great. I doze in and out of consciousness. While the hours slowly pass, I notice that my rear keeps getting closer and closer to the floor, while my head and feet are still raised of the ground at the same height. Apparently my weight is keeping Sarah, who is on the other side of the air mattress from sinking to the floor as well. I finally feel my butt touch the kitchen floor.
I start to doze off again when I am awakened by Sarah pulling on my arm saying "There is someone outside!" I get up to see what is up. From the alley next to the apartments I hear someone screaming "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!" Then I hear what sounds like sneakers running down the side walk in front of the apartments. I move to the main room where Nathan's bed is so I can see out the front windows down to the street. In the dark, I hear Nathan stir as I look out the window. He whispers to me "Is there anything I can do to help you sleep better?" I say exactly what is on my mind, "Yeah, you can lay me out!" He laughs a bit. I tell him about what I had heard. He said that sometimes people yell in the street between buildings. I decide to go back to bed.
When I get back to bed, I lay down and tell Sarah that whoever was out there is gone. She gets up to go to the bathroom which makes me sink all the way to the floor. When she comes back to lay down, she launches me off the air mattress in the kitchen floor. Sarah says, "I guess we should blow it back up." We proceed to get the pump and everything ready very quietly in the dark. As soon as we turn it on, the loud little pump scares Lauren who, while being half-asleep, jumps up out of her bed and tries to hold up the air mattress while we pump it up. Scott doesn't move. We finally get Lauren to lay down and get the mattress inflated. We lay back down to sleep.
I continue to doze in and out. I lay in a pool of sweat. I slowly begin the movement down toward the floor again. It is getting on to be about 4 in the morning. I hear Scott let out a moan of absolute pain, but then gets quiet again after he rolls over. In the dark, I can hear Sarah repositioning on the air mattress. Then I hear a pop and a rushing of air. I suddenly begin to descend rapidly toward the floor. Sarah begins to fuss about the air mattress, mad because it had gotten stuck on the fridge door and popped. I tell Sarah to go sit in Nathans reclining computer chair and try to rest. I sit on a kitchen chair for an hour dreading what new challenges the day will bring. My luck changed however and the next day went smoothly.
So this story goes to show you, Heat is not all sunshine and daises. Sometimes it's radiators and air mattresses. Stay Warm!
The time is October. The temperature is pretty cold (of course). My friend Scott and his wife have the opportunity to go see Nathan in a play in Cincinnati. Sarah and I say "Why not?" So we leave extremely early on a Saturday. We drive through mountains, valleys, towns, until we finally arrive in Ohio. It is about lunch time so we decide to go look for somewhere to eat. There doesn't seem to be a lot of people out on the streets. We find a little sandwich shop and eat some lunch. Then we meet Nathan before the play. He was in a performance of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It was very good.
After the play, Nathan had to do another performance before he would be done for the day. So we decided to go see what there was to do in Cincinnati. First we drove around looking for stuff. We started going out of the city into a very sketch residential neighborhood. I started to feel very uneasy. We then drove back into town and parked the car. We decide to walk around the town to find something to do. We litterally cannot find anything to do. Most of the places are closed, at 3 pm on a Saturday. I didn't understand it. There were hardly anyone out on the streets. We finally found a Starbucks open and containing a few signs of life. After spending about $10 on two cups of gourmet coffee, we decide to go back to the car. I'm about to freeze, the wind is whipping through the streets in between the large buildings. We sat in the car and waited for Nathan.
After we went out to eat, we headed to Nathan's apartment. This is where the fun will begin. He lives in a small two-room apartment. We get there to a heat I had not experienced in a long time. He had a radiator putting out heat that he could not turn up or down. It was extremely hot in this place. Scott, Lauren, Sarah, and I took over Nathan's kitchen for our air mattress. Scott and Lauren had a small air mattress at the foot of my air mattress. Sarah and I had a bigger one that required us to use a pump to inflate it. We get the air mattress in place and lay down to sleep. I am unable to sleep.
It is so hot that I am unable to sleep comfortably. Meanwhile, I hear everyone else sleeping great. I doze in and out of consciousness. While the hours slowly pass, I notice that my rear keeps getting closer and closer to the floor, while my head and feet are still raised of the ground at the same height. Apparently my weight is keeping Sarah, who is on the other side of the air mattress from sinking to the floor as well. I finally feel my butt touch the kitchen floor.
I start to doze off again when I am awakened by Sarah pulling on my arm saying "There is someone outside!" I get up to see what is up. From the alley next to the apartments I hear someone screaming "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!" Then I hear what sounds like sneakers running down the side walk in front of the apartments. I move to the main room where Nathan's bed is so I can see out the front windows down to the street. In the dark, I hear Nathan stir as I look out the window. He whispers to me "Is there anything I can do to help you sleep better?" I say exactly what is on my mind, "Yeah, you can lay me out!" He laughs a bit. I tell him about what I had heard. He said that sometimes people yell in the street between buildings. I decide to go back to bed.
When I get back to bed, I lay down and tell Sarah that whoever was out there is gone. She gets up to go to the bathroom which makes me sink all the way to the floor. When she comes back to lay down, she launches me off the air mattress in the kitchen floor. Sarah says, "I guess we should blow it back up." We proceed to get the pump and everything ready very quietly in the dark. As soon as we turn it on, the loud little pump scares Lauren who, while being half-asleep, jumps up out of her bed and tries to hold up the air mattress while we pump it up. Scott doesn't move. We finally get Lauren to lay down and get the mattress inflated. We lay back down to sleep.
I continue to doze in and out. I lay in a pool of sweat. I slowly begin the movement down toward the floor again. It is getting on to be about 4 in the morning. I hear Scott let out a moan of absolute pain, but then gets quiet again after he rolls over. In the dark, I can hear Sarah repositioning on the air mattress. Then I hear a pop and a rushing of air. I suddenly begin to descend rapidly toward the floor. Sarah begins to fuss about the air mattress, mad because it had gotten stuck on the fridge door and popped. I tell Sarah to go sit in Nathans reclining computer chair and try to rest. I sit on a kitchen chair for an hour dreading what new challenges the day will bring. My luck changed however and the next day went smoothly.
So this story goes to show you, Heat is not all sunshine and daises. Sometimes it's radiators and air mattresses. Stay Warm!
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