Checking The Obits

My wife doesn't agree with my reading the daily obits in the newspaper. I like to joke and say that I'am just checking to see if I see my name or photo. If I don't, its a good day. 

A few weeks ago some friends were over and one said  that she was keeping a scrapbook of obits out of the news paper that she planed to leave for her kids. She explained what I already knew.  Some obits go into great detail about work and travel, and are quiet interesting.  Most people don't have the know how to write and publish a book of their memoirs ,so their obit becomes their final memoir. 

Most obits are short and to the point? I find it sad that someones life is reduced to just a few lines. I can't help but wonder what happened to the person during the sixty to ninety years they lived. 

Maybe the fact that obits are paid by the line announcements, keeps many of them short and sweet (short and cheep).

Living On 15 Amps

Americans take their cheep electric service for granted. You don't think its cheep? Well it is. Here in Italy the cost is three to four time what it is in the US.

What's  more dramatic than the cost, is the amount of service available. The basic home service is 15 Amps.  I think the minimum required service in the US is 150 Amps. What does that mean? Well it means that we can't use the oven and a hair dryer at the same time. If we do, the over load breaker will trip at the meter and we loose all power in the house. Then we have to trot down stairs and reset the breaker. We could upgrade our service to 30 Amps, but it would double our electric bill during the months that we are not here and only have seven lights that come on at dark. 

Next time your drying you hair and the AC,TV,Oven and varies other appliances are all on, just be grateful you don't have to run outside and reset the breaker.