12/1/10

Another month gone, welcome December. As part of something I do each first of the month, I review my energy usage for the previous month. So this morning I gathered all the data I have been collecting, I used 353kWh this month (173 from PV system, 180 from the meter). This is a bit higher than previous months (247 average over the last 6 months), but I also turned the electric heat on for the first time this season. When compared to November of last year, 530 vs. 353! So I reduced my consumption by about 6kWh per day! Anyway, I have a million spreadsheets of data that I could talk about, but I'll move on.

We got up and did our typical morning routine of going outside, feeding the dogs breakfast, checking the meter, blogging and coffee. Since I finished blogging a bit early, we went on our morning walk a bit early and did our 1.5 mile loop instead. It was another fairly warm morning so I didn't need gloves. In case you are wondering, and if I haven't already said, walking the dogs with gloves makes life more difficult. The hoops in the leashes are small, so If I have to switch hands the leashes get more and more tangled. Plus when I have to pick up their business, it adds another layer of complexity. Anyway, the walk went well, the dogs were good and we got back to the house with plenty of time for me to get ready for work. I ate a bowl of cereal, got cleaned up, and then I was off to work.

Nothing too exciting happened at work today. Same as work always is, just kept plugging away at crossing action items off my list. At lunch I went home to be with the pups, we played in the backyard for a bit. I made a ham & cheese sandwich for lunch and ate it on the back porch with the dogs. We played some more ball, then I had to get back to work. The rest of the afternoon was filled with meetings, so time actually went by a little faster than usual.

After work, I came home and started a fire in the wood stove. Then the dogs and I played outside for 10 minutes before feeding them dinner. We played a little more outside before the rain started coming down, then I made myself nachos for dinner. We sat upstairs watching TV until 7:30pm and then we went out for the evening walk. There was a break in the rain, so I jumped at the chance to get the walk in without rain. Midway through the 1.0 mile walk, the rain started. We made it back without getting too wet. I dried off the pups and we all settled in to relax upstairs and watch TV. At around 10pm I went to bed.