As the days continue to move forward into fall and winter draws ever nearer, we're also starting in on the annual game of "house heating bingo."
What the hell am I talking about?
Every fall, we play the informal game of guessing when the whole house heater is going to come on for the first time.
This is somewhat of "an event" around here for a couple of reasons, one of which is that we're going to spend a day or two breathing all the dust that accumulated in the air ducts all summer, and the bigger reason being that when the heater comes on the electric meter starts spinning around like a propeller on crack.
Naturally, since fuel prices have gone up considerably since this time last year, I'm also worried about the size of those heating bills once they start rolling in. Thankfully, the first serious hit is going to be for November which will be billed at the beginning of December and won't be due until the end of December. Even so, I'm not looking forward to $300 heating bills. Or, at least, that's what they were last year so it wouldn't surprise me if they're closer to $400 this year.
We've always had an ambition that we would be able to not have the heater come on until Halloween but in the 15 years that we have been living here we've actually never made it to Halloween. So it's basically a vain hope, not a realistic one. Most of the time, we only make it to the middle of the month.
While we do have a couple of wood fireplaces, they're not really that effective in terms of heating the house. I guess it's one of the drawbacks of living in a moderate climate where they don't expect it to get super cold, so the heating or cooling is not given the attention it is — for example — in my native Denmark where cold dark winters are expected.
Sadly, I expect that fuel costs will just be one of the many ways in which people end up feeling like they're just not able to keep up with the cost of living.
In spite of arguments and assurances to the contrary, the price of groceries seems to keep going op... in response to which we keep simplifying what we eat. And those who are getting some kind of benefits are seeing those getting cut, more and more.
It really does feel like this train is going to derail...
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2026.10.12 01:36 PDT
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