You Know You Are Old When

[ultrarunner]

On a side note, the norm now is just to text that you quit.

A 24 year old Marine out of the service lives up the road from me. Met him and his wife and kids when I invited them to come over to go sledding because we have one of the best hills for sledding behind your house you'll find in the area. Talking with him, asked him if he was looking for work, he said yes, we hired him. I told him the only thing I ask of him is don't text and quit the same day.

Guess what he does 2 months later?

Thing is, he has a 3rd kid on the way, and when he was working for us, he called me one weekend asking me why his electric bill was over $500 in a small 900 sq ft house. Just drove by their house and their outside porch lights (all 4 of them) ALWAYS seem to be on.

I've given up trying to figure out people...

A renter complained she had a $320 two month water bill which includes sewer… she cut back her water to 50 gallons a day refusing a few gallons on a drip that is in her lease.

I said let’s go over your $320 two month bill… $21 was for water delivered… the rest is meter fee, sewer fee and sewage treatment plus taxes…

 

[Sigarms]

At least you aren't in the dating world. That is how people break up now... no more looking your partner in the eye and saying
"This isn't working".

I get it.

That said, you think if you were looking for work, you would at least want to leave the company you last worked for on good terms for a reference.

I gave that guy some crap over the way he did it, and he could only say he had a family emergency he has to take care of. Between some of his family members he talked about, it's a soap opera that he will never break if he was telling the truth.

I just figured 24 year old prior Marine with a wife and two kids on another on the way, wasn't what I expected.

 

[newbury]

Thing is, he has a 3rd kid on the way, and when he was working for us, he called me one weekend asking me why his electric bill was over $500 in a small 900 sq ft house. Just drove by their house and their outside porch lights (all 4 of them) ALWAYS seem to be on.

I've given up trying to figure out people...

Outside porch lights may not cost that much.
I know that every little bit counts, but with LED lights they may be using less than 1KW/day, (4 led bulbs@9 watts/bulb)
In my area of Mississippi a Kwh only costs ~$0.112.

 

[WinterDeere]

Outside porch lights may not cost that much.
I know that every little bit counts, but with LED lights they may be using less than 1KW/day, (4 led bulbs@9 watts/bulb)
In my area of Mississippi a Kwh only costs ~$0.112.

So many of my neighbors have taken to using LED lights as an excuse to just leave outside lights on all day and night. I don't know why that bothers me, but it does.

But I do think it's a sign of a personality type, someone who probably doesn't concern themselves much with waste in other areas. If you can afford that, fine... but Sig's acquaintance was specifically complaining about those costs.

 

[ultrarunner]

Outside porch lights may not cost that much.
I know that every little bit counts, but with LED lights they may be using less than 1KW/day, (4 led bulbs@9 watts/bulb)
In my area of Mississippi a Kwh only costs ~$0.112.

Helped a neighbor save a little when one of four 150 W dusk to dawn lamps stopped working…

At 60 cents a kilowatt hour it was about $3.50 a night or over a hundred a month…

 

[MossRoad]

Helped a neighbor save a little when one of four 150 W dusk to dawn lamps stopped working…

At 60 cents a kilowatt hour it was about $3.50 a night or over a hundred a month…

Yikes!
I converted everything in our house, indoors and out, to LED with the exception of the 4 bulb fixture on our kitchen ceiling. We've been in the house for 30 years and only two of the 4 original bulbs have burnt out. I'm waiting for the last one to go before I go LED in all of them. That is, unless I cannot get incandescents to replace the others. When I do finally change them, all 4 will be the same for consistency in color, warmth, etc...

 

[thepumpguysc]

After I worked out my 2 weeks notice, I was told that I was the only person in the company’s history that WAS ALLOWED to work out their 2 weeks notice..

 

[Jstpssng]

I was working at a landscaping job to get by in my younger days. We knew we'd be laid off soon, when I was offered another job which would carry me over; but I had to start the next week.
I talked to the owner who said "If you have a chance to work you'd better take it. There will be a lot of guys out of work soon."
The next year I went back to the same landscaping job for a couple of months until I got a lucrative job offer and have never really looked for work since.

 

[Sigarms]

Outside porch lights may not cost that much.
I know that every little bit counts, but with LED lights they may be using less than 1KW/day, (4 led bulbs@9 watts/bulb)
In my area of Mississippi a Kwh only costs ~$0.112.

I understand that lights left on all day may not cost that much to run, but this is a old house and has like 4 lights on the porch, and the lights aren't LED.

My wife toured the home couple of years ago because the owner of the home is the daughter of our neighbor, and she got the house when her grandmother died. My wife toured it because since it was so close, we were looking for a place for her mother to move closer to us after my wife's dad passed away.

It's a small 1 bedroom home with a very small bathroom.

Since my neighbor was asking me what could be causing the higher electric bill, I just found it amazing that they would leave the outside lights on when they already have a outside light right by the house from the electric company.

Our power company has a low rate and high peak rate depending on the time of day and if it's winter or summer.

I just figured a former marine who is 24 years old with a wife and 2 kids and another on the way would have his act together more. He might get something from the military for disability, but leaving his job the way he did was very irresponsible IMO and showed a lack a maturity.

I get the fact that the pay may not be the greatest at $20 an hour, but the job also includes health benefits/insurance, decent 401K program after a year along with vacation and time off.

I started off at around $8 and hour in 1993 (equates to $17 in today's money) doing the same kind of work, and after a couple of decades of applying myself, don't do too bad now in my position as a salaried employee. I explain to people that you have to apply yourself and stick with it. Even if it's something you don't want to do the rest of your life, you can move to other areas in the trade once you learn it.

 

[MossRoad]

Friend of my wife's grandson said he was going to join the pipe fitter's union after high school. Great! The work was too hard, pay too low, and he stopped after just a couple months. Then went to work as maintenance in some factory. Quit that, too for same reasons. This kid is an athlete. Star baseball player. Good grades. I don't get it.