And They Told Us It Would Be Cold Here...

Here today:

Home today:

Here today, petunias are still blooming and the geranium is growing new buds to bloom again:

North Pole, Alaska today:

At Cheyenne Mountain Zoo this morning, the Meercat Cam view:

And on my windowsill the avocado tree just keeps on growing!

Yes, it is warm outside still. Inside the flat it is a different story. As is typical, no heat yet. Central heating, that is. The kind that comes in through the radiators and that our landlord pays for and raised our rent over this last time we paid rent. No, no heat there. Which means that when it's 57 degrees outside, it is 67 degrees inside right now. 67 is not bad at all, if you are outside. However, inside that is kind of cold. So, it is sweatshirt and sweatpants time again for me.

We tried turning on the heater today. Actually, we've had it on several times already in the evenings and early mornings, trying to keep the inside temp around 68-70 degrees until we get 'used to' these cooler inside temps again. However, today I also started a load of laundry. And Mel was playing a CD in the CD player. And both of our laptop computers were on. And the livingroom lights were on.

And the fuse box started to catch on fire.

Smoke, the gross electrical 'something is starting to catch on fire' smoke filled the entry way. Mel came into the kitchen, where I was doing dishes and listening to the washer wash, and asked me what was burning. I said I just started to smell it when he walked into the room. We went out into the entry way, sniffing and there it was - smoke coming out of the electric meter/fuse box.

Quickly I turned off the lights and then the washer, Mel started clicking the two fuses and then turned them completely off. We were without power for about 15 minutes. He felt the box and when it was cool again, we slowly started turning things back on. The washer - all ok. The lights - all ok. The CD player - all ok. The heater - nope, not going to touch it at all! We'll try that later this evening. But we will make sure not to turn the electric kettle or the coffee pot on at the same time. And the laundry is finished washing for the day so that's not an issue. Hopefully we can keep the meter from burning up.

Everything has been fine with the meter for a few years now. I think I may have written about our problem with it a long time ago, when we were going through a dozen fuses a week or more. I won't go into that now, but just say it has not given us any problems at all since we figured out that particular problem.

However! Several weeks ago two guys showed up one day, came in and changed the face of the meter, from a disk that twirled round and round to a blinking green light and numbers that just roll over, like a speedometer. My guess? My guess is that it is a cheap piece of junk that was not made to read as much electricity as we normally use. We use a LOT of electricity compared to most people. Our next door neighbor knew when our electrician had accidentally connected a line to her meter out in the hallway (long story) because her meter started turning - she only uses electricity a few times a day, if at all, and she heard it start to hum. The woman across the landing from us is not even hooked in to the central power box at all!

So - we may have warmer weather than you - but you have more electricity than we do, or at least you won't burn you house down or apartment up if you turn on 5 things at one time. :) :)