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I can't help it, just telling the truth about myself. I'm not making any claim as to whether I'm more a curmudgeon than anybody else, just being descriptive.
I'm a pessimist too. I expect everything to always work out for the worst. What's really great about that is that most of the time I'm right, and when I'm wrong it fills me with joy!
Lovehound: That's exactly the way I look at it. If you set your sights low enough, you'll seldom be disappointed, and the surprises are almost always pleasant ones.
Actually a curmudgeon is a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person. Like me.
And speaking just for myself, a misanthrope is a hater of humankind, and honestly all you people suck! I don't have anybody else to hang around with though, so I put up with you just so I can have a little conversation and mental stimulation. Actually I prefer my dog's company but he isn't much of a conversationalist.
Really, I don't hate all mankind, just most of mankind. I don't think there's a specific word for that so I just shorten it to misanthrope.
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EDIT: I just read another thread here in NM section and suddenly I had an epiphany! I hate most of mankind and NM is one of the least populous states in the US! LH doesn't like people and NM doesn't have a lot of people. Suddenly I realized one of the great attractions of the beautiful state of New Mexico!!!
Previously, they billed the first 200 kWh at a lower rate than usage above that level.
I noticed that the 2nd tier kWh rate went from 8.20 cents/kWh to 9.07 cents.
That's an increase of 10.5%.
For the June bill, there is a 3rd tier that is 11.19 cents which is above the 2nd tier of 9.07 cents.
That's an increase of 23.4%.
Also, this month's 3rd tier of 11.19 cents is 36.4% above last month's 2nd tier.
It's 41.9% over the rates from 12 months ago.
The payback period for installing solar power in one's house just got a lot shorter.
The 3rd tier kicks in for usage above 700 kWh.
I caught this on my neighbor's bill since mine was only for 350 kWh. (cost = $34.81)
The neighbor uses refrigerated air, so their use was 985 kWh. (cost = $106.47)
I've also noticed that some charges that used to be truncated (ie 3.5 cents went to 3.0 cents)
are now rounded up (to 4.0 cents). sneaky sneaky sneaky
> ... Utilities everywhere should encourage solar...
And governments. It's to help fight the war on terror.
The present day situation is that we are at the mercy of oil producing countries. We are forced to play politics and war in that part of the world because without the vitally important petroleum imports our country would be crippled, and even today we are hurting badly because of increased oil consumption by China, India and other growing economies.
If we were somehow able to lessen our dependence on petroleum imports then the Middle East would not be so important to us. Terrorism in that part of the world would not rock our economic boat to such a degree. It's not only to fight the "war on terror," it's to diminish the importance of terrorism and it's to increase the economic stability of our own country.
Saudi Arabia and the other OPEC nations have made it clear that they like the present day situation, like calling the shots, and that they refuse to increase oil exports. Our supply of oil is unlikely to increase, and our demand for oil is unlikely to decrease, or to decrease much without sever economic pain.
There is only one thing to do. We must develop non-petroleum sources of energy. Renewable energy is the best because it isn't used up; we can use it and yet still have it for future use. We should pursue all of those: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, etc. I doubt that will be enough to significantly diminish our reliance on imported oil, so we must also develop the other kind of energy: shale oil, coal gasification, offshore drilling, nuclear, all the ones the environmentalists hate. We'll just have to find ways to lessen the negative impact of these lesser desirable sources.
Unless we change I see the US cutting our own economic throats, and countries like China and India gaining an advantage over us, perhaps even eventually becoming the dominant world powers, enough to control the US in much the same way that US has dominated the world for so many years up to now.
I don't see any real choice except to find some ways to get off of our petroleum addiction, and I don't think we'll be successful unless we explore all the alternate energy sources simultaneously.
I don't see any real choice except to find some ways to get off of our petroleum addiction, and I don't think we'll be successful unless we explore all the alternate energy sources simultaneously.
And switch to swamp coolers.
There! I got us back on topic.
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