Well, today we took dh's car into the shop for the noise. My dad really didn't have a clue when I showed it to him. Well, he guessed wheel bearings, but still not sure why the air conditioner needs to be on to make the noise. IT sounds a lot more like something with the wheels than the engine. But I Drove it this morning without the a/c and it sounded fine. Just strange. But that is what we pay the mechanic for. To figure out mysteries like these...

(Already paid him $250 this month when the engine light came on, BUT this is the car that we have had 6 years, 80k miles on it, never needed a thing but a minor repair here and there. So if it needs a big repair, I think we'll survive. IT historcially hasn't cost much of anything to keep it running).

Though, on the other hand, I have owned cars older than dirt that didn't need to go in more than once every 6 months. I think 2 visits to the repair shop in ONE month is a new record. Figures. Though leaves you wondering if they messed something up when they last had the car. IT's a family friend and he always takes good care of us, so am not too worried. I doubt that's what it is. I think it's just bad timing. But if it is, I am confident they would own up to a mistake of theirs. We'll just wait and see.

-----------------------------------------

Anyway, this morning it struck me that there was a lot of daylight in the house. I toyed with the idea of showering in the dark, and then thought it was crazy. Then I thought better of it. How much light do you really need?

So I came out of the shower very impressed with the cost cutting measure. Dh was like, yeah, whatever, "I never turn the light on in the shower."

Not so impressed. LOL.

But yeah, that is something I Can work on I guess.

Of course, reminds me much of why our electric bill is usually so low anyway. We have a lot of windows and natural light. So we don't use the lights that much. BEsides early in the morning and late at night. For now BM is the light nazi too. If I leave a light in one room for 1 minute while I go to another room to get something, 99% of the time he'll turn it off and yell to me that I left the lights on. I guess dh has trained them well. LOL. God forbid I turn on a light in the house. Dh is a little extreme in not needing light. For one, I like lots of light when I am cooking. So I Can see what I Am doing. So yeah, even then sometimes BM comes into the kitchen when there is still some daylight and switches off the light. "Mommy - you are wasting electricity." Then I say, "um, I Was using that!" LOL. I Can only hope this electricity mindfullness sticks into teenager-hood.

OF course, it would be ludicrous to use a light in our bathroom, during the day, since it is bathed in light from the windows. But we use the kids' shower which is in a room in a room. (Both rooms window-less). I found leaving both doors open allowed plenty of light to see what I needed to. THough it was pretty dim. & we'll probably move back to our own shower as the boys age. Our shower needs work, but the real truth is I hate cleaning bathrooms. So we just use the one. Only one shower/tub to clean then.

But speaking of saving energy, this is the time of year we save the most on our energy bills. On Easter it was around 75 degrees and it struck me that dh's cousin had the a/c on. I am sure he was just making it extra comfortable for the crowd. But it struck me as a little odd. But then again, his old house was on the warn side.

Then this morning, my mom told me she woke up to 60 degrees inside and it was a little chilly. I am not sure why she mentioned it (maybe because it had been warmer for a bit, and the cooled down)? But all I could think was our house has settled to a nice steady 70 degrees day and night. NO heat or a/c needed.

May can have some unbearably hot weather, but I am rather confident we won't need to turn on the heat or air for a good solid month. A/C use in May is generally pretty rare. So it will be a quiet couple of months. woohoo.