Saturday, April 14, 1984

Another routine day, except I was freezing this morning, and after hours of not having any feeling in my fingers and toes. I checked to see if Cilco had turned off the gas and electric. They hadn't; the thermostat was just turned down to sixty degrees. I didn't know who had turned the thermostat down that low until I got home tonight. At work the computers require that the air conditioning be turned on for them to function, and i lose feeling in my fingers and toes. When I got home and still didn't warm up after several hours, I checked the thermostat again and it was set at sixty-five degrees. When Cecil heard the furnace start to run, he came out of his room and asked if I had turned it up. I explained to him that I was not only uncomfortable at cooler temperatures, but parts of my body become numb and lose feeling at low temperatures. I told him I would compromise at sixty-eight degrees, but I may be wearing hot water bottles again and spending a lot more time in my ninety-five degree waterbed. Besides, all he has to do is shut his bedroom door, because the forced air furnace for the whole house is located in the hall. It's very possible that he is uncomfortable at seventy degrees, and if he can't adapt to my physical problems, he will move and I will be looking for another tenant soon. Cecil seemed mad at me, yet he's the one on disability. I wonder why he is so irritable. Maybe if I understood his disability, I could become more compassionate.

HEAP has been funded again by Congress, but who knows how long before the agency will receive the money. I will try to pay more on my Cilco bill this month. I hope the Great Gas God doesn't shut me off before the assistance from the HEAP program arrives.

Cilco has collected $13,000,000.00 in taxes, the equivalent of #17.50 per natural gas and electric customer, and is allowed up to thirty years to pay the taxes to the government. Why? The government wouldn't wait for any paultry taxes I would owe. I would rather give the $17.50 to the government now to help pay on the national debt, but the government would probably build another space station or underground city somewhere with the money.