Psychotomy

went to my parents yesterday and took ‘em out to dinner. left k home so we could sit around and chat too

topics of conversation changed regularly as i bailed out of discussions to avoid arguments, since it was father’s day after all :)

there was the energy price increase (maryland deregulated in 98/99, cut the prices (the ones based from regulation and pretty rock-bottom in theory) by 5% or 10% or something, held the prices for 7 years. jul 1 the company we’re with was raising now that they could. 72%. my parents company was going up 39% or so). my dad looked at his new bill and the production cost (which is the only part that changed) went up 67%. so he was on a tear about the 38% being an utter fabrication and double books and shell games. i made a brief point about the fact that he has to pay the rest ANYWAY, so the overall is 38%. sure, its a little misleading, but the stuff i kept seeing was talking about total bill anyway.

then there was actual power consumption. b/c they have gas furnace, gas water heater, gas dryer, they have the gas price as the main in the winter more than energy. we’re all electric, so it’s pretty consistent. theirs was huge this last winter. my dad was on about the natural gas prices (which gas happens to be the same energy company as the electric) being a much higher rise than the electric. electrics only ~3c/kwh. of course, theres a lotta kwh’s in a month :o I think their bill was so high over the winter for the same reason their electric is relatively low in the summer. they like it warm. therm was set to 85 yesterday. i think it stays over 80 in the winter, too. we’re 78 summer, 72 winter i believe (with 75 just around bed, and sometimes 68 when no one’s home). so we’re pretty consistent. they use a lot more energy in the winter keeping it sauna warm :o

there ws of course some general abuse of my tendency for hellish long showers … sometimes two or three times a day :o when i went to college, the water co declared the meter broken, estimated based on past usage and charged that. b/c it went down like 75% or something :o what can i say, i like hot showers :)

discussed what they wanted to do for their 40th next year. i was thinking maybe taking them to broadway/nyc. turns out they have a wedding there in sept, but they’re staying in jersey the other side of the lincoln tunnel b/c the hotel in manhattan is 170$/night. and since they’re staying at a motel8 for 60$/night, they’re gonna make it a week trip and do same-day tickets to shows from the tkt booth. which works for them b/c they don’t really care what they see, whereas when we were there we had actual preferences :o so no idea what we’re doing for that at this point.

cajun for dinner, which was decent. i couldn’t taste any black pepper, but everyone else said the food, including the shared appetizer, was nice and spicy. so i’m thinking my tastebuds are broken ;o

but, i was succesful in not getting into one of my usual big arguments with my dad. largely b/c i kept bailing instead of going forward like i might. but whatever works :)

Posted in: general by attriel /