J. Jason Lazarus Blog

So, got the first power bill which was a bit high because it was almost six weeks worth of electricity - but on the other hand, the average is 17kwh per day - and from a quick google check, it looks like we’re below average - average being a bit under 900kwh per month where ours was 634 for almost 6 weeks.  Seeing that a good portion of the lighting and kill switches weren’t put in until the second or third week of us having this place, I suspect the next bill will be sharply lower.  What’s your average kwh/d?

So, last Friday Aidan had his belated 2 month appointment - dreaded by the fact that there’s a pretty decent barrage of shots that the young lad has to go through. Thankfully, he decided to be a little picky with his food Friday morning and didn’t get fed until he was already in the doctor’s office - probably the best thing he could’ve done. When the shots came, he cried less than an entire minute between the first two shots and then the last one - and went straight back to sucking on the bottle. Very strong kid, I tell ya! Nonetheless, he’s 13.4 lbs at 10 weeks, 24 inches long and all other measurements place him between the 60th and 75th percentile - so he’s doing great. He’s meeting or exceeding almost all of the milestones at this point in life - already intentionally hitting things and grasping for them when he’s on his playmat; he’s cooing, smiling and pushing his body off of my chest and slightly off of the mat when placed on his stomach - and he’s even making bubbles with his mouth - according to some people that’s a “milestone”. The only one he hasn’t met and it depends on who you talk to if it’s supposed to happen around now or later is laughing - and the doctor’s not worried about that - he does “laugh” - just not audibly.

Aside from that, early last week I had a confrontation of sorts with a Barnes and Noble employee and a twitter post wouldn’t do it justice, so here it goes: I’m carrying Aidan into the Music/Movies section of the store, pick up a movie and go to purchase it and the cashier at the desk smiles, coos a bit and says “awh you’re babysitting”

I say, with mild disgust that was apparently a bit too mild to be picked up on this employee’s radar, “No, the mother’s back to work, I’ve taken over at home, I’m taking care of him - I’M the FATHER.”

They, smugly say “yes, exactly, you’re babysitting”

At that point I decided that it wasn’t probably a good idea to continue this discussion because a manager was going to be called pretty darn soon. Maybe I was getting flustered over nothing - but I think I’ve got a point here. I know that typically some (not all - by far) fathers have little more than a fading interest in raising their children and rarely do participate for more than the instant it takes the mother to run to the bathroom and back - but last I knew, I am not that type of man. Last I knew, clerks shouldn’t be openly applying stereotypes to their customers just because they think they know what’s going on. I know for a very long time, and to be honest unfortunately it still happens, the mother’s role in a household has been belittled, insulted and taken for granted when it is truly the hardest job out there. Somehow I don’t see this a fitting response to a father that’s obviously an active part of his son’s life at a much greater extent than these stereotypes would ever suggest - so why insult me - how does this right any wrong? Its not that I expect undying praise for what I do, but I do expect that random people shouldn’t dissolve all I do down to petty babysitting. I might not be the best father in the world, but I think I’m pretty darn good - much better than any standard stereotypical babysitter at the very least.

Once again, peddling my own wares, I’m teaching both Basic and Advanced Photo at UAF this summer - starting in a little more than a week. If you’re interested, you should definitely take the classes during the summer mainly because, being Fairbanks, its so hard to find inspiration at -40! It’s a great opportunity during the summer to take these classes in a much more open, relaxed environment that doesn’t strain you or make you rush your assignments like it does during the regular semesters. Nonetheless, Basic is offered either Tues/Wed nights (5-8) for lab and a Thursday (5-8) night lecture - Advanced is offered from 5-8 on Mondays with labs being flexible to whenever the student has time.

Look to the right on the sidebar and note that I’m now on Twitter.  Although I hate social networking sites, this is far from the classical definition of social networking (eg. myspace).  I’ve discovered that I’ve got really short updates that I’d like to post about but can’t manage to muster up the effort to login to Wordpress and actually drum up a substantial post around a one sentence thought.  So, look for mini-updates there as well.  Enjoy!

Now it’s not going to a surprise to most of you that I am an environmentalist of some sorts - not the bleeding heart liberal of a environmentalist but, in my own terms, a “reasonable” environmentalist. I’ve seen enough of the bleeding heart type around Fairbanks and have found them quick to judge major companies like Wal-mart and Exxon but they are fairly slow at realizing that they themselves are a major part of the overall problem as well. If all these so called “environmentalists” would actually start doing something themselves rather than complain, we could actually get a grasp on this global warming bit.

Now, I’ll admit, financially, there was very little reason for me to do anything ecologically before I bought a house. I recycled what little paper I remembered to and attempted to recycle darn near every coke can I placed my hands on - but for energy saving inside my house - I wasn’t paying the bills for electricity or water ever - until this month. So, as soon as I got the keys for our house, I went to Lowe’s and Home Depot and bought a heafty supply of CFC (Compact Florescent) Bulbs and started considering other energy saving schemes and devices.

When we walked in, our house was set at 69 degrees in both the basement and the upper main floor - as soon as I walked in, that got turned down to 67 degrees upstairs and 66 downstairs - and since then, I’ve turned it down further downstairs to 63 degrees. Problem is, even though this place heats more efficently than almost anyone elses place I’ve heard of, there’s no reason to heat the basement when all the heat will do is rise. Additionally, solar heat from the sun, which is up 18 hours a day currently, manages to heat the upstairs on cloudy days to 71 degrees and 74-75 on sunny days. If the thermostat is turned high downstairs, the heat is just going to make the upstairs even warmer. Granted, I heat with oil and we bought the place with a pretty full tank - I’ll know very little about how much I’m saving, but I know that we’re already saving much more than the previous people that admittedly boasted about great fuel bills (and the owners before them as well!). Also, the 71 to 75 degrees that the upstairs warms up to doesn’t cool off until 3-4am, so the heater might turn over a couple times a day - not much at all, considering.

As for electricity, here’s what I’ve replaced:

4 60w flood lights in the kitchen with 9W CFC’s that emit the same amount of lumens (240w vs 36w).

6 40w vanity lights in one bathroom with 2 CFC vanity lights , running at 9W (240w vs 18w).

Eliminated 4 40w vanity lights in the basement bathroom (savings of 160w).

2 outside lights with 60w bulbs in them, replaced with 14w CFC’s (120w vs 28w).

5 overwatted sockets with 75w bulbs (only should’ve been 60) with 4 9w CFC’s (375w vs 36w).

2 basement flood lights, 60w, with two 14w CFC’s (120 vs 28w).

9 additional 60w bulbs with about half 14w CFC’s and half 9WCFC’s (540W vs about 106W).

Although this is an approximation, we’re looking at - just the lighting - a difference of about 1550 watts vs 250 watts.   I’ve also placed almost all of my electronics on kill switches rather than keeping them plugged into the wall - so that means whenever I game, I actually turn power onto the television and the game systems rather than letting them run all night long - and those suckers do draw a LOT of power - it may be a sip of power, but it’s a constant sip - and high-end electronics that keep themselves primed like Flatscreen TV’s and computers do manage to do a bit more than sip.  This should put a heavy damper, all together, on my electricity bill.  Although scientifically speaking I did this little experiment all wrong because I have yet to get a bill to compare it to - but why wait and pay for it?

More later - need to get Aidan fed.  I’m really excited to see what type of change this makes in my overall payments - in the next couple months I’m looking forward to finding more efficient ways to doing a lot of tasks - hoping that over the next few years that I can save up enough to start investing even in some solar panels - we’ll see how that works out!