POWER: Doesn't add up

My husband and I went to visit my parents in another state a few weeks ago. Both my husband and I are experienced in maintenance and construction. Before we left the house, we did everything to save electricity and hence, money. The night before we left, we cleaned out our refrigerator. I was once a refrigeration mechanic. We didn’t unplug it but we got rid of every last item of food and then cleansed it with vinegar and baking soda. Then we turned it off. We unplugged the television. We turned off all the heat sources. My husband turned off the water at the box, not at the valve in our house. Then, we drained all our lines. We turned off the hot-water heater (electric). There was nothing else to run electrically except our battery-operated fire detectors.

We returned home 17 days later and collected our mail. Among the many letters was our Avista bill. A saving of $20. Well, golly-gee-whillikers! If they don’t send us a better, bigger savings next month, I may be just a bit suspicious!

I want to know what is going on! A few years ago, I spent $5,000 when I rebuilt the property. I paid $2,500 to have the transformer moved closer to the house and $2,500 to have a trench dug for the wiring. When we bought this property the transformer was nailed to a tree. When the tree was ready to fall to the ground, the person who came out to inspect it said, “Oh, we can’t move it closer to your property. You have to pay for that.” Well, we have been paying and paying and paying. Oh, by the way, the person who inspected our property was once a councilman for CdA. I guess that’s just par for the course. Good old white boys who take money from women. If he had dealt with my husband, maybe we would have gotten a better deal, but my husband was working out of town.

BETSY ROSENBERG

Rathdrum