Going Green

Just the other day we got our electric bill and were so excited to see that it had gone way down in price and overall usage!  Now that our girls are not at home I am amazed at how much water and electricity they were using!  Reliant Energy just installed the smart meters in our neighborhood so we are getting into "reading the meter" and studying the "KWH usage".

Now, I have not always been a "go green kind of gal" but my husband and I are starting to get on that band wagon.  I call it getting old more than I call it going green.  I remember being somewhat offended when my paternal grandmother, God love her, would recycle things like tin foil and the vegetable bags you got at the grocery store.  My maternal grandmother, who is 94 years of young, had a drawer designated to saving plastic butter dishes, twist ties, plastic bread bags, paper bags, and jars!  Oh, my gosh, she saved jars! I remember thinking, I don't think you have to save all of those----because how could you ever use them all!  Instead she would fill them with leftovers after our Sunday dinners at her house and send them with us to take home.

My MIL, however, was definitely not from the generation of recycle.  I don't know if she was ever frugal, thrifty, or saved anything! When she lived by herself she had a TV in every room, left lights on in every room, and kept the A/C on about 60.  When you stayed with her you froze!

Okay, so let me return for a minute back to our Reliant electric bill.  As we were analyzing usage and trying to figure out how to set the smart meter, my husband looked at the daily usage.  Guess when our peak usage was?  It was from 1pm (my MIL gets home at 1 from the Senior Center) to 5pm (we get off work at 5).  Not from 5-10pm when we are home but when my MIL is home alone!  Cracked me up!  How can one little 74 year old use the bulk of electricity in four hours a day?  She just has one lamp, a closet light, a room light, a TV she doesn't watch, our TV downstairs, and several lights in between........!

Maybe we need to teach her about "going green"!  It is what it is...... but Life is good.....over the hill!