You can tell because the Christmas trees are on display at BJ's. A sure
sign that fall is here.

"Ed Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
> You can tell because the Christmas trees are on display at BJ's. A sure
> sign that fall is here.

I put out the electric jack-o-lanterns on our front porch (not plugged in
yet, tho!).

Van

On Oct 1, 5:54*am, "Ed Pawlowski" > wrote:
> You can tell because

You can tell in MY house - it's cooler now and I lit the oven to make
a peach cake. I'm back to my winter menus and will get ambitious
about doing a lot of cooking and freezing, now that 'cane season is
virtually behind us.

Xmas is not a big deal for me. I shop in five minutes, do cards in
ten and decorate in 20. Too much hoopla for me. I used to knock
myself out, but didn't really enjoy it.

I know a lot of ppl who are just ruling out the gifting entirely.
Schmart.

Kalmia wrote:

> You can tell in MY house - it's cooler now and I lit the oven to make
> a peach cake. I'm back to my winter menus and will get ambitious
> about doing a lot of cooking and freezing, now that 'cane season is
> virtually behind us.


I turned on the furnace last night. I am in a bit of a bind. I am
getting a new furnace in three weeks, switching from oil to natural gas.
I have about 1/4 tank of oil left in the tank. I may as well use it
up. I am being charged for the removal of the oil, but get nothing for
the oil. However, it is going to get cooler and I don't want to run out
before the new furnace arrives and gas hooked up.



> Xmas is not a big deal for me. I shop in five minutes, do cards in
> ten and decorate in 20. Too much hoopla for me. I used to knock
> myself out, but didn't really enjoy it.

My wife does the seasonal decorations. Since this is the beginning of
October she will probably start working on it soon. A few years ago when
we went up to Montreal to visit our son for Thanksgiving he joked to his
girlfriend that his mother would bring a Thanksgiving kit. Sure
enough.... gourds, red leaves, Indian corn etc. When the snow hits she
will be taking down the Thanksgiving decorations and start on Christmas.


> I know a lot of ppl who are just ruling out the gifting entirely.
> Schmart.


I keep saying that we will cut back, but we never seem to. I used to
exchange with my brothers and their wives but when we started had kids
we gave to the kids instead. I cut that out the year that no one
bothered buying birthday presents for my son. I figured that I was
buying birthday presents and Christmas presents for 12 nieces and
nephews, and if none of his aunts or uncles could bother getting him a
birthday present I wasn't going to go to the effort and expense to buy
presents for all their kids.

That year my mother re-introduced the old family deal with the $5 gift
exchange, each person bringing a gift worth no more than $5 and we would
draw numbers. As people took their turns they could take an unopened
gift, or they could take on from someone else, but a gift could not be
taken more than twice. Curiously, one of my SiL's thought that was
totally unfair. She had four kids. Two of us had only one and another
had 2 and she was unhappy that we only had to provide one gift for our
child but she had to buy four. She didn't seem to see the unfairness in
my having to buy four birthday gifts and four Christmas gifts .... 8 in
total, each of which would have been more than the total for 4 $5 gifts.

Bah Humbug.

"Dave Smith" > wrote in message
>
> I turned on the furnace last night. I am in a bit of a bind. I am getting
> a new furnace in three weeks, switching from oil to natural gas. I have
> about 1/4 tank of oil left in the tank. I may as well use it up. I am
> being charged for the removal of the oil, but get nothing for the oil.
> However, it is going to get cooler and I don't want to run out before the
> new furnace arrives and gas hooked up.
>

If it runs out, you have the inconvenience of dumping in 5 gallons of diesel
but at least the cost is not so much.

Wish I could get gas. I did put in a new System 2000 oil boiler in December
and my fuel use dropped 32% so far. I say so far, because the summer water
heating is even greater savings and I won't know until I fill the tank in
maybe another month. With the old boiler I've have filled in April and be
ready to fill now. The February fill-up is still only half gone.

You'll like the gas much better, IMO. Let us know how it goes when it gets
cold again.

Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>
> If it runs out, you have the inconvenience of dumping in 5 gallons of diesel
> but at least the cost is not so much.
>
> Wish I could get gas. I did put in a new System 2000 oil boiler in December
> and my fuel use dropped 32% so far. I say so far, because the summer water
> heating is even greater savings and I won't know until I fill the tank in
> maybe another month. With the old boiler I've have filled in April and be
> ready to fill now. The February fill-up is still only half gone.


This has been a frustrating and expensive experience for me. My oil
furnace is old and in need of replacing. We did not have a gas line down
our road and it would have cost megabucks to have one put in. Three
years ago my insurance company made me replace my oil thank. There was
nothing wrong with it, but it was more than 25 years old... probably
closer to 50. It cost me $200o for the tank and installation. Just a
few months after the new tank was installed they put in a gas line for a
house that was being built across the road from us. They extended it
past his place right up to the middle of my front yard and told me I
could hookup with no charge because the the first 20 meters is free and
it is only about 12 m. ($39 per m. past that). I got two winters out of
it but now it is time to fix the furnace. Unfortunately, it conked out
in March and cost close to $200 for repairs.





> You'll like the gas much better, IMO. Let us know how it goes when it gets
> cold again.

I am also getting a gas water heater and while they are at it they are
installing a high efficiency AC. That may be money wasted because we
have lots of trees around the yard and I have not used my AC for the
last two summers. Everyone I know who has switched from oil to gas say
they have saved a lot on heating.

Dave Smith wrote:
>
> Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> >
> > If it runs out, you have the inconvenience of dumping in 5 gallons of diesel
> > but at least the cost is not so much.
> >
> > Wish I could get gas. I did put in a new System 2000 oil boiler in December
> > and my fuel use dropped 32% so far. I say so far, because the summer water
> > heating is even greater savings and I won't know until I fill the tank in
> > maybe another month. With the old boiler I've have filled in April and be
> > ready to fill now. The February fill-up is still only half gone.
>
> This has been a frustrating and expensive experience for me. My oil
> furnace is old and in need of replacing. We did not have a gas line down
> our road and it would have cost megabucks to have one put in. Three
> years ago my insurance company made me replace my oil thank. There was
> nothing wrong with it, but it was more than 25 years old... probably
> closer to 50. It cost me $200o for the tank and installation. Just a
> few months after the new tank was installed they put in a gas line for a
> house that was being built across the road from us. They extended it
> past his place right up to the middle of my front yard and told me I
> could hookup with no charge because the the first 20 meters is free and
> it is only about 12 m. ($39 per m. past that). I got two winters out of
> it but now it is time to fix the furnace. Unfortunately, it conked out
> in March and cost close to $200 for repairs.
>
> > You'll like the gas much better, IMO. Let us know how it goes when it gets
> > cold again.
>
> I am also getting a gas water heater and while they are at it they are
> installing a high efficiency AC. That may be money wasted because we
> have lots of trees around the yard and I have not used my AC for the
> last two summers. Everyone I know who has switched from oil to gas say
> they have saved a lot on heating.

Key things to remember when analyzing oil vs. gas:

- Oil and Nat. Gas both fluctuate widely in price.

- With Nat. Gas you have only one choice of supplier and no real ability
to pre-purchase, and no backup on the rare occasions that gas service is
interrupted.

- With Oil you have multiple supplier choice, ability to pre-purchase
and store, and backup of on-site fuel buffer plus the ability to source
from another supplier or the diesel pump at the gas station if your
normal supplier is unavailable for some reason.

- Be very wary of word of mouth "I saved a ton of money" claims from
folks who have switched in either direction. Generally these claims are
based on the $ per month or per fill, not on $/BTU, they don't account
for the fact that the switch typically replaced a 30 year old furnace
with a new one high efficiency one, and sometimes include unrelated
savings such as added insulation at the same time. To get a real
comparison you have to run the numbers for your home size, and the
efficiencies of a new oil and a new gas furnace, not compare to a 30yr
old one.

- If you are adding Nat. Gas to your home you must invest in a decent CO
/ Gas detector to be safe. You should have a CO detector anyway if you
had an oil furnace, but with the added danger of a gas leak, a gas
detector is a must and not very expensive.

Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>
> You can tell because the Christmas trees are on display at BJ's. A sure
> sign that fall is here.

Some of the places locally had Christmas stuff on display in August!

No one is allowed to enjoy a season for what it is any more. Having said
that, bought a couple of Christmas items to finish off some craft
projects to be sold at a fair at the end of this month. Hated to do it
but a deadline is a deadline ;P

On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 05:54:05 -0400, "Ed Pawlowski" > fired
up random neurons and synapses to opine:

>You can tell because the Christmas trees are on display at BJ's. A sure
>sign that fall is here.
>
I have long been of the opinion that there oughtta be a law forbidding
the placement of Christmas displays before Thanksgiving...or at least
Halloween, for cryin' out loud!

OB: I am so going to make the Christmas Cheesecake With English Toffee
Filling this year. I got it outta Bon Appetit a while back and I'm
determined to make it this year instead of my usual Buche de Noel.

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd

--

"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

- Duncan Hines

To reply, replace "meatloaf" with "cox"