Thermometer or Thermostat?

Horrified, violated, angry; it’s difficult to choose just one word to fully describe my feelings. No; I wasn’t accosted, mugged or raped. I just received my local electric utility bill with what they say is “only a thirty per cent increase.” It is especially frustrating because my home is “total electric” depending on electricity for everything from heat to water. I normally don’t deal with bills but this bill makes me question the utility company’s mathematical abilities. It’s double what I expected. I’ve done all I can think of to deal with the situation: insulated outlet plates, indoor dryer venting, energy efficient bulbs, capped off with heat settings bordering on frosty. I don’t recall a bill in that territory since we ventured into the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) electric utility territory in the late seventies. All the elaborate system of dams throughout the south supposedly yielded some of the lowest electric utility rates in the nation. To “put icing on that rate cake,” our new home included two “new fangled” super efficient units called heat pumps that replaced furnaces and such. What a shock (and bill like this one) when I discovered that the heat pumps operated on pure raw electricity when winter’s chill drop below a certain temperature.







Since I received my recent bill I am very temperature conscious especially since our home is heated by electricity. Most times of the day I can probably tell you within a few degrees what the temperature is. I am not sure how much good it does because, other than being aware of potentially freezing road surfaces, most of the time I am at a loss to put that information to practical use. It makes me aware of how easy it is to pride myself in being a thermometer in life. I can routinely spot and expound on abnormalities not just in temperature but in many other life issues. Things like crop growth, the economy, the political landscape, child rearing, deep theological issues, and yes, the temperature.






The difficult issue is to be able to do something about the issues my “thermometer” registers. It’s not that I don’t try to change what I encounter. It’s just that the efforts often border on comedy. I spent most of my predawn hours this morning tossing and turning and trying to regulate my body warmth. The flannel sheets that were such a blessing early in the evening became unbearably hot. First, I stuck one foot out to “cool” and then finally threw the sheets and covers off completely. Soon, I was completely covered again (including my head) because I was freezing. I’ve witnessed friends (who don’t pay the costs) try to regulate the heat in their apartments by using their ovens for heat and their windows to cool when it gets too hot in the winter. January and a new year yields many examples of efforts to take dramatic corrections and over corrections in many folk’s lives. These efforts range from severe budgets (often overlooking provisions for food, etc) to “Biggest Loser” type exercise and diet programs. Many are now being re-evaluated or abandoned as I write in late January.






Reacting properly to things that I perceive is more difficult than it sounds. Often I think I’m just a “thermometer” and see my responsibility as informing others of things like “a latter day Paul Revere.” When I do venture to change things myself, I am prone to doing it “all or nothing” and that often rapidly proves unsustainable. Slight corrections and moderation are not things that come naturally to me. Perhaps it’s time to yield control to one of those new “automatic programmable thermostats” capable of perceiving needs and making almost imperceptible constant corrections appropriate for the time and conditions. I certainly have a great need for something similar as I sometimes erratically attempt to simultaneously multitask and cope with a myriad of life’s ever changing issues. Now, if I can only leave my hands off the programming and trust one far more capable than me.