I thought Christmas was celebrated “After” Thanksgiving. Heck,
I saw someone buying a Christmas tree this past Friday, go figure. On another
note, I stopped celebrating Christmas and most, if not all holidays a long time
ago. Mainly because, my children are grown and gone. But, I digress…
I got up to go to the bathroom, around 3am, the other night
and as I looked to my right, I noticed a bright light on, downstairs. I went
downstairs and noticed that I had forgotten to turn off my hard drive, as it
has a large, bright light on to notify me, that it is on.
As I stood, in my computer room noticed all of the lights
on, blinking, winking and just sucking up electricity. My router, blinking, my
hub, with its steady blue light just staring into space. My two printers, their
light shining, one green and the other printer light, blue, and of course, my
hard drive’s light so bright you probably could read a book by its light.
I looked over into the media room and noticed both of my
amplified bass’s lights were on. One a steady red light and the other a
blinking orange light. Orange? That’s new and different. Then there’s the red
light on the Television, the eerie red light on the power strip, behind the
Television. The dull circle on the DVR, which I don’t turn off because I am
usually recording something and the bright gray number giving me the time, on the
DVR.
Into the living room, lights were blazing there, also. I
noticed the bright red numerals on a small clock, located under the Television,
resting on a deep black pedestal, unseen in the dark but illuminated, slightly,
by said clock. Sitting next to the
clock, my old trusty VCR. It still works and its blue numbers tell the time of
day, or night.
As I circled around, I took note of the two hubs, that help
control the security system and the security cameras, blue and green light tell
me of their locations. The living room, itself, isn’t all that dark, only
because, on the door wall, the vertical blinds swing back and forth ever so
slightly, from the furnace blowing its hot breath, letting the lights on the
back porch slither through and dance on the floor.
I recently installed a connected Thermostat to the living
room wall by kitchen. As I passed it, it lit up, letting me know that it was 31
degrees outside and 59 degrees on the main floor, which caused the furnace to
run for a few minutes, keeping the temperature at a reasonable 60 degrees,
until 6:30 am.
In the Kitchen, more of the same. It’s where the energy
vampires exist sucking the energy right out of the walls. Starting with the
clock on the stove, to which I haven’t changed the time to daylight savings
time as of yet. And, the microwave was doing its number, but without any numbers
flashing. I haven’t set the clock and probably won’t, but its shines,
nonetheless. To top everything off, the Wi-Fi controlled coffee pot, it’s façade
lit up with its green Wi-Fi logo greeting me, letting me know that I will have
a great cup of coffee when I wake up.
Bright lights, lights in the dark…
Try this one of these nights; Go downstairs, don’t turn on
the lights, though, and just look around in the near darkness. Have you notice
how bright it is and you don’t have lights on?
Why, I said to myself, thinking? I decided to count all of
the red, green, blue and gray lights. I counted 22 of those bright diode type
lights running.
I don’t know how much electricity is being used. I have seen,
on the boob tube, a commercial made by the energy company, considering I record just about everything I
watch and speed through the commercials. But, I do remember the commercial, a
PSA, in regard to, energy vampires, or was it energy pigs.
Now I have to figure out what to turn off and what will
continue to blink or stare into the night while I sleep, just so I don’t have a
humongous electric bill.
I guess, now that I think about it, it’s my way of
celebrating the Holidays, from Thanksgiving, through to New Year’s Day. And, I
don’t have to put up any “Christmas” lights. They are already there, blinking
throughout my house.
