why is it so HOT in your house?

just got the electric bill – nearly $250 for june. YOWZA! i shudder to think what july and august will be like, at this rate. i’m sure that it would be somewhat lower if we used TXU or whatever they’re calling themselves now, or reliant or somesuch, but we are with green mountain energy (renewable wind power) and though part of me hates to pay a higher price for the same service, a bigger part of me hopes that we’re actually helping change the system.

so we decided to get the downstairs a/c unit fixed, thinking that the upstairs unit was working too hard to try and cool the entire house. since doc works out of the house now, we’ve also not had the luxury of having the a/c off during the day when we’re not home, so that likely accounts for part of it, which is totally fine and totally necessary.

i also feel like i need to explain that we live in the southcentral united states, where it’s extremely hot and quite humid from about may through october (100˚F / 38˚C or higher for most of august). going without a/c is very difficult, if not dangerous — old folks tend to drop dead during the summer here. so it’s not like we can just open a window or two and quit whining.

however, it wasn’t a cheap and easy repair like we’d hoped. our choices now are between paying about $900 for a new motor in the outdoor unit and a new motor in the blower… or paying about $4300 for an entire new system. the current system is about 25 years old. do we pour $900 into it to patch it up again, when something else may go wrong next year or next week, or do we bite that gigantic bullet and get a new system?

choices, choices.

also, the tivo has decided to flake out on us. it’s behaving as if its hard drive is crashing, several times a day. we have to unplug and reboot. apparently we can purchase a new hard drive for it and format it ourselves… but i just tried to read the instructions and my scientific conclusion is that it will be a much better idea to just get a new tivo. i ain’t no hardcore pc hardware geek.

not that tivo is a necessity or anything; i’m well aware that it’s a luxury item. it’s just so cool!