Watch out for that curve-ball!

My dear, sweet Katie was there when I got hit with the curve-ball. It was innocent enough. Katie, as many of you know, was our clinician with the behavioral program for Gaige. Katie's job is to lend support for me and Fred, help us get what Gaige needs and strategize on target behaviors and such.



But something wonderful happened...Katie and I became friends. Honestly, I spent more time with her than any other person in Maine. We spent about 6 hours a week together and even though I benefited more, we were both blessed by our relationship.



So Katie and I were doing out thing and then mail came. I got the utility bill...we all know those can surprise you, but no worries, we're on budget billing. That's where they average your bills and you pay the same amount every month. We paid $127. You know how that works...they re figure it every six months and it might go up or down $20 or so. Ours went up $200...not to $200...to $327! That's huge!



I couldn't figure it out, so I called right away. They told me there had been a deficit from Jan, Feb and March. January's bill was $500+, February's $400+ and March $300+. I was shocked! You Memphians know we can get bills like that during a super hot summer...but let me explain something we had to learn. Here, all the bills are separate. Utilities run most people $80-120...that's just for electric. They have oil heat...everyone has an oil tank in their garage or basement that holds 300+ gallons and you have to get it filled. Its about $2.60/gal for the one we had and you have to get at least 100 gallons at a time. On top of this, you get an additional water bill...which in Memphis is about $10 or less a month but here...$75!!! So Memphis system of getting one bill is nice...but the point is...$375 for electric alone is crazy!!! Unheard of!

The only way it could have happened was attributed to the heating problems we had back in the winter. The house on Revere was very long...the thermostat and the boiler (in the basement) are in the front of the house and the back of the house...super cold! It was so bad that people starting bringing slippers to our house. Oh yeah...for the southerners...northerners take their shoes off when they enter your house...because of the mud and snow...but they do it all year round, no matter who they are...its quite charming I think. So everyone was shocked by the temp of the tile floor in the kitchen in the back of the house.

Even in March when I met Katie, she would tell the mentors to wear a jacket and warm socks when they came to our house. We tried to keep it warm but it was no use. The mudroom, which was after the kitchen was totally freezing! In fact, our washer kept freezing up in there. So, we ended up putting a small heater fan in there to help the pipes from freezing. We actually had it angling down onto the pipes. We put plastic over the exterior mudroom door and quit using that one and it still wasn't bearable in there. So, what it was...was COSTLY!

Our landlord sent that heating guy out ten times, I bet! True knew him by name. But they just couldn't make it work any better and we were using a ton of oil considering we were only keeping it at 60.

So we got the gigantic utility bill and figured out that between November and May, we had spent a collective $5000 on oil and electric and we were still FREEZING!

Fred and I talked about it and decided to let our landlord know and see if he had any ideas on making sure it doesn't happen again. We figured that if they were going to sell, they probably weren't going to want to put any money into it. The windows in the cellar were broken...he had promised to fix them the week we moved in but never did...Fred ended up covering them in the winter just so we could survive. So, basically, we felt we needed to make sure we weren't put in the position of spending almost $1000/mo to keep warm...and not doing it well.

So that was the curve ball...and then came the "DUH" moment I'll share with you in post after next.