Act of kindness
It is a kind and proper thing to light the porch lamp while awaiting someone. As I disembarked from my car at a tad past midnight this morning, I saw that my neighbors across the street were getting a pizza delivered. As I watched the pizza guy pick his way across their yard up to a dark stoop in the dark, I thought how rude it was not to have turned on the porch light to receive the pizza guy. Then I turned to go inside.
As I got out my keys, I realized that I was hunting my front door key in the darkness of my own doorway.
Hrrumph. My wife, who absolutely blesses my family with her ability to squeeze blood from the stone that is our budget, frugally turned off the porch lamp when she retired to bed. It's true that I carry a Stinger flashlight on my belt if I need light. But still-- do we save THAT much by dousing the 60 watt bulb for two hours?
Kinda hurts my feelings. I probably should say something to avoid being passive-agressive, as well as to get the guarenteed response of "well, just learn to deal with it" out of the way. :)
posted by Matt G @ 12:27 AM
3 Comments:
I'm the opposite - I leave our outside light on all night, and turn it off in the morning. Husband and son don't argue with it, either... we'd rather spend a couple extra dollars on the electric bill and have the security of knowing anyone approaching our home after dark can be seen more easily by us inside, as well as by the neighbors and police, if necessary.
Maybe you could look for a more energy-efficient bulb/fixture combo for outside?
Anonymous said...
"Time for a compact fluorescent bulb.
That way you can leave it on all night and still use less electricty than a hour with a regular bulb.
One of the better ways is a motion-detector light with c.f. floods.
That way you save on the electricty and the lights come on when someone walks up."
(imported from the next post, on beer.)
Yeah, I've done the flourescent route, and there's a problem-- my outlet kills bulbs at an incredible rate. If I get 3 weeks out of a bulb-- any bulb-- it's a frickin' miracle. So my $8 bulb that's supposed to last 18 months or more costs me a fortune. (I went through two in a month.) I don't know why it does it-- there's obviously a problem in the wiring.
And motion detector porch lights mean that you can't turn on the light and leave it on, usually. I'm a big believer in 'em, otherwise.
Two words: motion sensor
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