A killer day

So yesterday began with an e-bill for our water pump electric meter that was seven or eight times higher than normal.

(One of the not-joys of country living is having a well. Our water is fine, and there's plenty of it, but you have to hire someone to take care of any problems that crop up. And problems will crop up.)

The well is located down a very steep hill and the meter is on a pole nearby. We get three electric bills every month, one for the pump, one for the garage and one for the residence, how fun is that?

I called the power company and spent an inordinate number of cell phone minutes on hold and ended up walking down to the meter to take a physical reading. Which turned out to be quite accurate, thankyouverymuch, but there's no way IN HELL we used that much water.

I finally talked to Jon, a very patient customer service rep, who explained that we didn't use that much water, we used that many kilowatt hours. Which is a whole different ball game. (Speaking of ball games, the college basketball championship game was one of the most exciting I can ever remember watching!)

We got a huge bill last year, as well, and paid for a fruitless service call.

The good thing is the meter reading I took yesterday shows that we're back to a normal usage pattern. The bad thing is we don't know why, for two consecutive years, our bill as been so high during the two coldest months of the year. There probably is a connection, but since everything is underground and, thus, doesn't freeze, it's unlikely that the pump has to work any harder to push water up the hill when it's 20° than when it's 80°.

The trek to and from the meter was the killer part. It's a three-quarter mile trail walk to get there, through a cow pasture. (Don't click if you don't like cows. Or pictures of cows.) We climbed the hill back up to the house, which was less than half a mile but OH SO STEEP! My husband and I were following the water line, looking for leaks. Which were non-existent, and we figured there weren't any because if there's a leak, we usually have evidence – discolored water, low pressure, etc.

And then I walked five miles in the afternoon. So. KILLER DAY! With no good answers to the problem and a hefty chunk taken out of the checking account for water we didn't use, but kilowatt hours we apparently did use.

That condo in North Carolina is looking better and better.