Hot is the Operative Word
When it comes to a HOT tub that is.
We splurged and bought a hot tub this year. It's perfect. Set off our deck, just a few steps from the house, in our private back yard, we soak almost every night. While we love soaking in the tub under the stars, being practical New Englanders, we hate the fact that we're throwing electricity away keeping it warm all day. Why pay to heat it for 24 hours when we use if for 30 minutes? Our electric bill practically doubled since we've had it running.
So last month Howie schemed up this plan to turn the heat down every night, and the first person home from work each afternoon will turn it up again. Sounds reasonable. He would ask me every day: "Did you remember to turn the hot tub up?" Of course, I was remembering every day. One day he forgot. So we made a rule: When you come home and let the dog out, turn up the hot tub.
It was working great. Then one Saturday he wanted to soak in the middle of the afternoon. The hot tub was only warm. We had turned it down the night before. So we made a second rule: The hot tub stays hot all weekend. Just in case a morning or afternoon soak is warranted.
Again, things were going swimmingly for a few weeks. Then came Christmas. Our weekends and weekdays got all messed up. After our soak on Christmas night, Howie turned the tub down. Then yesterday (by his account, a weekday) I didn't work. It was still MY weekend. I came home first. I let the dog out. I didn't even think to turn up the tub. The house was cold. We talked about starting a fire, but it was late. We discussed the hot tub about three times, but not once did he ask me if I turned it up.
We both decided that we'd go to bed early after a nice soak in the hot tub. You see where this is leading, don't you?
That's right, no hot tub for us last night; it was only luke warm. And it takes about three hours to heat up. We climbed into a cold bed, both of us disgusted that we couldn't warm up with a nice soak. I promptly fell asleep. Howie fell asleep, woke up at 1 am, and went in the hot tub. He was NOT going miss out on his nightly soaking.
Today he announced that we will no longer be turning the hot tub down to save electricity.
Comments
Whew! That's a lot of rules for something that should be fun. I'd say it's worth it to shell out for the electricity! Happy soaking!!
Posted by: Sheepish Annie | December 27, 2006 09:02 PM
oooh a hot tub
Just the idea of it is making me feel cold and like I need one :) Those rules would quickly go out the window with us, we both have a 2 second memory.
Posted by: Amy Boogie | December 29, 2006 02:32 PM