It's Only Money

 Brrrrr I'm having trouble adjusting to this cold weather.  I do HOT much better than cold.  Once you are used to the 90 degree days of Arizona, it's suddenly becomes cold when it's 70 degrees here.  Of course I don't keep my heater set to 70 because it costs too much for electricity, even with solar.  You have to pick and choose your poisons.

Here is what my electricity usage has been for the last 30 days.  If it's green, I'm making more than I'm using, meaning there will be no true-up at the end of my year, which is July.  On cloudy or rainy days, I'm above the line and it's costing me.  So far in the four months it's been connected, I'm ahead of the game by $85.00.

My question is, what's going to happen when everyone has solar and PG&E gets no more money to upgrade all those power lines?  I rather imagine the cost to deliver electricity to us will go sky high.  

So yesterday was a trip down memory lane, followed up with lots of frustration.  This house is wired for sound.  It had a whole house surround sound system installed BEFORE I purchased it, with speakers in every single room.  Even the bathrooms have speakers!  To be honest, I don't use it much since I'm a TV person, but Cris Stapleton music makes me want to dance.

I pulled out my CD and went to the player.  It takes an electrical genius to figure out how to turn everything on and push the right buttons on the receiver to get it to work.  Obviously that's not me.  I couldn't get the darn door to open.  It just clicked at me.  Finally it popped open, but refused to close.  Broken!  RATS!

I searched the internet for a solution, but apparently there is none.  So ... it's on to finding another.  Yamaha has been the leader in stereo systems forever, but cannot be found nowadays.  I have no idea who these Onyko people are, but they seem to be the only ones out there.  Apparently these systems are dinosaurs from the past.  

I finally ordered one from Best Buy.  Actually I hoped they would have one in stock, but our store has only huge TV's and of course phones.  By the time it gets here, it will be my Christmas present and I can dance to Cris Stapleton Christmas morning AND all day long because it holds 6 CD's!!

With that done, I headed over to Sound Encounters to see about getting my truck stereo unit replaced.  The speakers buzz, the lights don't work and a CD is stuck in the player and won't come out.  If I'm getting all this fixed, I'm doing it up right!  

I had checked last year for an after market unit that had GPS, a CD player AND a stereo.  Hey, it's only money, right?  And I'm cheap enough with other things to at least THINK I can afford it.

Last year the price was $2,000, which I balked at.  That would buy a LOT of food!  Actually, they didn't even have any because of the "chip" shortage.  I'm not sure how that affected these, but anyway, I said sayonara ... that's too much.

Surprisingly, yesterday they were back in stock with the price having fallen to $700.  It would be so NICE to have GPS in my truck and not on my too small phone which always falls on the floor.  And GLORY BE ... I wouldn't have to listen to all those Mexican stations when I travel to Tucson.  I would have a CD player!!!

Just like everyone else in California that got the $250 for fuel, I'm using it to buy "stuff" instead.  So I did it ... I ordered the unit and it will be installed next week.  Not one but TWO Christmas presents!!  It's only money, right?  Better than buying a new truck!!!  I mean really, if I collect on all those free gifts I've won in my email account, I could sell them and pay for it twice!!

Yesterday afternoon I actually spent two hours blocking every single one of the 279 I received.  Turns out blocking them does nothing.  They actually just change one letter of THEIR email address and send them out again.  Which means I have to block them again and again.

Even THAT doesn't work because I still receive every single one of them, but now with a red hand that says blocked.  On the other hand, ones I mark as contacts or VIPs, STILL go to junk mail.  So I spend about 20 minutes every morning going through my mail, weeding out the ones I want to read.

Today I'll be on the couch STILL sewing on binding, gearing up for another wonderful night of BINGO!!!  I think I may be able to relate to the peasants ... after all, it's only money, right??  Pick your poison!!