Beating the Heat(ers)

It's hot.  

 It's been over 100 all week, and finally cooled off a bit today (whew!).

And our A/C doesn't work.

We've been hitting low 90's in the house.

But when we first got here it was cold.  We were trying to figure out this house and all it's quirks (like the millions of light switches to who-knows-what.  I am convinced that somewhere in the neighborhood there is a homeowner who keeps wondering why their porch light keeps turning on and off).  In that process, and because we were cold, we tried the heater, pellet stove, wood stove and a few space heaters to warm the joint up.

Did I say few?  I meant 4.

Oops.

Getting our first electric bill was beyond shocking! 

 It was more than the cost of:

My first semester tuition in college

My wedding band

The birth of our first child

Yah, so I got home to see "a look" on my husband's face that frightened me.  He showed me the bill, we freaked out together, and, yada yada yada plus a day later, we figured out about the cause of it.  Space heaters and a very inefficient water heater adding to the electric strain.  

We knew it would be something, though.  

You don't buy a 45 year old house and not have a few surprises.  So after we had our jaws surgically re-attached to our faces, we set about making plans to solve the problem(s).  I'm not sure yet what we will be doing to fix the house heat, but we have ideas in the works, and a few months to figure it out.  God took care of it for now by sending volcanic heat to the area, eliminating our need for plug-in solutions.  And a new water heater is DEFINITELY on the docket.

A day or so after the PG&E shock-by-mail, as I sat at the computer learning about energy-star rated heat-pumps, cute hubby walks through the room with our large laundry bucket (small tangent: Marcy and Kindel Morris, if you are reading this, the bucket was part of your wedding present to us, and it will likely still be here in another 22 years!  Great choice!).  A few minutes later he returns with a call out that everyone needs to meet him in the driveway.

I was... reluctant? no, reserved? Nah, I'll admit, I was grumpy.  Water heaters and heat pumps are not my favorite things AT ALL.  If I made a list of things I like, water heaters wouldn't even make the top one thousand (I can say that now, because it's been over 100 degrees all week).  And now he was interrupting my grump-fest, and I HAD to join what ever craz-o-rama he had planned cuz' apparently, when I gave birth half a dozen times, I signed up for this whole support-ma'-hubby thing, grump or no grump.

So, we all made our way out the front door.....

SPLASH!!!!

Water gun to the face!

One thing I love about Guy (I love more than one thing.  Like at least four...)

is that he can sometimes shake off the blues and just cut loose.  But it is random, so you don't see it coming (I usually can't do that so well, cuz I am a crabby-cake.  Though I am working on it.  Just last night I turned a "They're-all-fussy-and-no-body-is-listening" Family Night into a Mouths-only marshmallow-catching contest.  It was Mallow-geddon up in here) 

  (what was I saying?  Oh, yah, water gun...)

TO THE FACE!   Bam!  (well, not bam. Splat?)

He had the wedding bucket full of water and a variety of squirty-thingies, loaded and ready.  We ran around blasting each other for a good half hour.  It was awesome. 

Natalie thought it was hilarious to shoot people in the "booty", eye level.  Jonah stayed out of range.  Adam got cold before we had even soaked him all that well (no meat on 'dem bones).  Tessa and Ellie were ruthless, and I was arbitrarily making up rules to avoid getting drenched.  No one listened.

Guy was a rock-star-cowboy, water guns blazing.

Soon a truce was called and weapons were stowed.  As I walked up the front steps, my gaze followed my feet as they squished on each stair, clean, wet toes sprinkled with driveway sand and itty-bitty pebbles.  I thought how just half a sunset ago I was all Oscar the Grouch.  I know that in life I am not supposed to let the situation dictate my mood, that I am the captain of my own ship and all that happy-crap, but this time it was a very good thing that I let Guy take the rudder.  Dis' here boat was beached on a sand bar, and it took a little water to shake it loose. 

*****

Fun things we have learned about the house/area

 (because it ain't all bad):

The acoustics in the living room are AWESOME, 

making Sunday night piano-sing-alongs better than ever.

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Baby deer make a cute squeeky sound, like a dog toy.

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Sometimes I forget there is a creek outside, and I think someone left the water running.  When I realize it's the creek, it makes me smile.

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If enough bugs get in the house, at a certain point you just decide to co-exsist.

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There is something empowering about being able to pee WHENEVER you feel like it, 

and to have three toilets to choose from, no waiting.