Conserve, Damn Ya!

Do you like getting yelled at?  I don't.  And still, the Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) Company insists on doing so at least once each week! 


Every week BGE has a day when they recommend all of their customers raise their air conditioner temperature, and not run their clothes washers and dryers until after 7 PM.  They keep track (somehow) to see who is not following their advice.


Usually, I get a telephone call and/or an email message the day after "savings day" letting me know how badly I have done.  For three weeks, BGE told me that compared with my 100 closest neighbors, our house used more gas and electric services than any of them, and our score was a big fat "zero."


Well, finally, I decided that I would at least try to join the environmental "savers".  So, on that "fatal" energy saving day, I did the following:


I left the curtains down.
I shut off the air conditioner. (It was 100 degrees outside!)
I did not wash any clothes, even though Elaine bugged the hell out of me to do so.
I did not dry any previously washed clothes, even though Elaine bugged the hell out of me to do so.
I was a good boy from 8 am to 7 pm, and what did it get me?


The next day, I got a robo-call from BGE:  "Your conservation efforts paid off a little.  You saved a total of $2.00 worth of energy, which amount will be deducted from your July usage statement."


"However," it continued, "all of your 100 closest neighbors saved at least $5.00 each! Please try to do better in the future."


OK.. OK ..  I'll try. Just stop nagging me!