A Little Overboard

You know you're upset with your electricity costs when you tell your microwave to shut its damn light off when it's not microwaving anything.

Rex just informed me that during the beep-beep-beep-beep that signals your time is up at the end of microwaving, the appliance is no longer heating your food. So the light, which stays on during the beeps, is on for NOTHING!

I'm already flummoxed enough about my September electric bill, which was $182. Seriously, I do not know why it is so high. You'd think Rex, who is an electrical engineer, could tell me. But whenever I ask things like, "Is it the LEDs that dot the house interior like tiny red stars when we shut all the lights off? Is it the two fluorescent lights and the TV you leave on constantly out in the Quonset hut where no one ever goes?" Rex says, "Oh, those use up hardly any electricity."

I suspect he's lying.

You will say, "Make Rex pay the electric bill. That'll motivate him to find out why it's so high."

Tried that. His response? He just didn't pay it at all. I'd end up forking over hundreds of dollars after getting the disconnection warning in the mail.

I am keenly disappointed that the electric company doesn't send someone to our house to figure out if our meter is defective. They did that when we had a LOWER-than-normal bill. Clearly, there's a double standard in play.

Any advice? It will be gladly accepted, mulled and possibly followed -- by ME, anyway.