It's a Grey Morning Readers

I'm beat. Totally beat. This weather is draining me terribly. I know everyone out there starts the, you live in Colorado, what do you expect? It gets cold there.

Yes, it gets cold in Colorado. And it snows in Colorado. AND I HATE IT!

You also have to realize that the part of Colorado I live in boasts 300 days of sunshine a year. And that winters since we moved here have been fairly mild on average. We've had subzero temps and blizzards, and plenty of regular snow, but the sun usually comes out and melts everything within a day or so and then it starts all over again.

This icky, gray, ice won't melt and the sun won't shine days are dragging me down. To top it off, every year I swear that I will not freeze in my own house to save money. And every year I make a valiant effort (that fails miserably) to save money on the heating bill by lowering temps to barely livable conditions.

That may be an exaggeration, barely livable, but 65 is only comfortable if you're wrapped in a blanket and that's just not practical throughout the day.

And did I mention that it's not working? Our bill is going up exponentially. I've tried telling the gas company that there is a problem and that by next month we'll have a $500 bill, at least half of which is gas at this rate.

Like they give a crap. He actually said if the gas portion reaches $150 then there's something to worry about. I checked the meter and after 7 days, we're almost at the gas usage we had for the entire month of December.

Now, before you start saying, but Becky it's been much colder outside so you're just using things like the heater more. I've looked at two comparable months and the change in gas is just as bad. It seems to be compounding each month, as if they're reading a base measurement that never changes. Therms used each month from Aug forward were as follows:

14

20

51

92

165

Like I said, these are 30 day readings and after just 7 days, we're already at 148 for this upcoming month.

Now tell me there's not something hinky going on here. Tell me it's normal for two people to have a gas usage that's almost doubling each month, winter or not. At this rate, I can't afford to run my heater anymore, no matter how low I set the temperatures. And considering the fact that I turned it off two days in a row during the "warmest" parts of the afternoon and my usage is still compounding thus, I apparently can't afford not to run it either.

Alright. I'm sorry. I need some light therapy in the form of a beach and a tropical drink with the sun shining overhead and a little bit of senility to make me believe that life is all good and my efforts are worthwhile.

And there I go again. Like I said, light therapy.

Regular post tomorrow.