Al Gore would be so disappointed in us

Al Gore is not afraid of you, and he will beat your ass

For some reason, our electric bill nearly doubled in the past month. This is particularly embarrassing, as I recently posted about our renewed interest in energy savings.

A few possible sources of the energy increase:

Inability to regulate our baseboard heaters. We've gone through a spell where no matter what level it's placed on, the baseboard heater in our bedroom has only two settings: Mohave and Sahara. This would be fine if we were, say, in Minnesota, but not so much when the low's only 30 or so.

Mystery buzzer. It still goes off. (When we returned home this weekend, the first thing we said was, "well, at least the buzzer's not going off.")

The DVR, a.k.a. Chief Culprit Numero Uno. I suspect we don't turn it off as much as we ought. Along with sucking our souls, it's sucking our natural resources as well.

The squirrels. Hmm. Could they be hacking into our electricity to service their own criminal needs? It's a very real possibility; these squirrels are relentless and very crafty. Then again, I always blame the squirrels.