Off The Grid

If I wasn't so addicted to the internet, I would live off the grid.

Actually, it has nothing to do with the internet. I like living in the city and being able to run to the store last minute, or go do something. The country is awesome, but a little isolated. I never leave my house much anyways, but I like only having to drive 15 minutes to get home from karaoke rather than an hour.

 My sister-in-law lives in a cabin in the country and is partially off the grid. They have a solar panel and a well and a wood stove. They only get billed for a tiny bit of their utilities.  We live in a 100 year old house with gas heat, one choice for a utility company, and poor insulation. This year, we ran up a total winter bill of $900 for heat and electricity. This is about half of what it has been in the past, but we had a mild winter this year. I hate our utility company.

I got a shut off notice in the mail and knew we couldn't pay it when they wanted it paid. So I called them. I was very nice and polite. I asked if I could pay them half next week and the rest the week after that. They said no. When I signed up for the winter moratorium, a program that allows us to not get shut off in the winter because we have children in our home, I had agreed to pay by the first of March. I forgot, but I was willing to pay next week. I was asking for a 7 day extension for the shut off notice, but no dice. I didn't ask for a supervisor, or yell and scream, I just said "I'll see what I can do" and hung up. Stupid utility company.

Then I panicked. I can't come up with six hundred some dollars in two days. Are you kidding? I could maybe scrape up half of that. But really, two days notice? Do they WANT me to take out a payday loan? Oh wait, can't do that either, unemployment doesn't count as a paycheck to those bloodsucking loan people.

We're filing our taxes today, but at a free place, not a place you can get an instant refund. And those instant refunds, they really take around 7 days and you have to pass a credit check, even though the tax return goes straight to them and they know exactly what you are getting. That's just stupid. They should credit check the government. I mean really, they bounce checks all the time and we just called in national debt instead of dinging them $35 dollars a check plus a daily fee., plus the 20 dollars the place you wrote the check to charges for returned items. It's all messed up.

Anyways,I'm off track so  I'm gonna go beg my younger, single, richer, stable sister for a loan. She's the baby in the family, but you wouldn't know it to look at us. Or to talk to us. She's my younger, big sister. And she's awesome. And she loves my kids. And yes, I am trying to kiss butt so she says yes, so I can pay my bill that I didn't pay in little bits and pieces over the last three months.  I hope she loves my kids enough to help me out. She doesn't always  like me. I 'm difficult.