Let The Sunshine In

A friend of mine recently completed a little personal project of his. He has replaced all of the interior lightbulbs in his house with compact fluorescents. Truth to tell, I didn't even notice until he pointed it out to me. And, other than a couple of the lights taking a minute or two to get to full brightness, I didn't notice that they worked any differently than regular incandescents.

I asked him how much he was saving by changing all the lights. He said that his previous month's electric bill was $45 (with just him in the place and the lights off during the day). The next month's (with his girlfriend and her daughter staying there 24/7) was $35. Considering there was a drop in the bill with an increased light usage, I was stunned. And jealous.

We use a few compact fluorescents in the house but nowhere that gets used too frequently (closets and storerooms, mostly). The rest of the house's fixtures have the old tried and true incandescents. And we are very prone to leaving lights on. As soon as we come in, almost all of the main floor's lights are turned on and stay on until we go to bed. That's 640 watts of juice for 5-6 hours. And that's assuming we don't go to any other part of the house. If we replaced all the lights in the house and turned them on, we could cut that in half while increasing the light the fixtures put out.

'Course, considering that the cost of that little venture would be $15 per bulb, I think it's something that's going to have to be a progressive thing. Assuming, that is, we can find the money to pay for 'em.

Enough's Enough

While sitting down to dinner, Nathan asked me to put in one of the tapes that Cate rented for him a while ago. Disney's "Gordy" (a rip-off of "Babe", one of Nathan's favorites) was the one he selected.

That movie is a total steaming pile of crap. And I'm being nice. Minimal plot, one dimensional characters, little to no (or really sucky) musical score and, to top it off, dotted with some real stinky country music. Not being a country music fan may have influenced my decision slightly but not that much.

I don't even want to mentally relive that movie by telling you how badly it sucked. Suffice it to say that, when I dig in to a package of bacon or other pork products, I will dreamily envision Gordy's brutal and messy slaughter become part of my delicious meal.

(no subject)

I put together the last of Celia's Christmas presents the other day. Little Tykes Buzzz Mailbox. Cute little toy that makes a buzzing sound whenever the little bee attached to it is jarred slightly. Nathan enjoys it more than Celia but they both take a certain delight in it's use.

Tonight was the first night I've seen Celia play with it without Nathan right beside her. She reached up, grabbed the bee and pulled it toward her. Which caused the entire mailbox to topple over into her head. She pushed it back up and did it again. And again. And again. And every time she had this confused look on her face.

Damn, that was cute.