We moved to NH in the 1980s and what people told us is to avoid electric heat. I think Seabrook improved things with electricity prices but it's something that's always stayed with me. There's an overall shortage of electricity in New England. NH generates more than enough power for the state but a lot of it is sold outside the state due to demand. I think that we should put in another nuclear reactor at Seabrook but permitting to construction is typically 10 years in the US.

I don't know if you're aware of this but electricity prices doubled in NH last summer. So what we paid last year was a lot less than what we are paying now. We had plenty of notice so that we knew it was coming but it's still unpleasant to deal with.

We live in a 1,200 sq foot home and our electricity bill was $240 and natural gas $95. We have 3 people at home during the day doing WFH. We're paying $0.33/KWH (power + delivery). It sounds like your main problem is electric heat. BTW, my son used to live in an apartment in Boston - it was an built in the 1960s with electric heat and his electricity bills in the winter were monstrous. The only consolation is that this time of the year is the worst. Bills go way down in the spring and fall and are only moderate again in the summer if you have air conditioning.

Our kids lived in an apartment that had electric heat when they were in college but utilities were covered in the rental price. It was a 2-bedroom in Lowell back from 2008-2012 and the rent was $1,000. The good, old days I guess. Back when I was renting, the prices were around $300/month.

That's 12 1/2 hours out of your life each week or about 625 hours (or 26 days) a year. That's a decent chunk of time that you could be using for other things that you may enjoy more.

We all have to do what we have to do but sometimes it feels like it's time to leave the rat race.

My longest commute was an hour but I was a contractor back then and I knew that it would only be for a couple of months. My job from the mid-1980s to 2020 had a commute of 20 minutes or less. That still adds up to a lot of time but it was a relaxing drive as there was no traffic to deal with.

Schools used different methods of teaching in the 40s, 50s and 60s emphasizing rote over analysis, creativity and discovery. So people didn't necessarily know how to learn new things that they didn't already know, without some kind of training. That changed in subsequent years and you can see that reflected in math textbooks among other things. This was mirrored in Asia where countries came to believe that their rote learning methods was insufficient for a modern world.

I'm a retired software engineer so I basically have a math background; but you generally have to figure out how to do things without help. So you explore, experiment, fail and eventually figure it out. This was the way it was back for us in the 70s and 80s but this became what employers wanted from all of their employees later on. Self-motivated, able to solve problems and find solutions without help or management attention, initiative, etc.

I have taken it as a given for some of the older folks that I know as this is what I have observed. I know retired engineers, doctors and others and they generally don't have a problem learning or even inventing new things. But I don't think that they are the majority.

It is very difficult to change the mindset of older folks because they have such a long history of doing things a certain way. Getting them to use modern technology is difficult unless the older person has a pliable mind. We got my mother computers and internet access in her house. Her approach to using the internet in her house was to ask one of us to come over and use the internet for her as opposed to self-service. My wife is like this as well as she grew up in an era where your manager told you what to do and how to do it. The modern world has managers giving you a task and you have to figure out how to do it.

Older people get spammed by postal mail too.

I have to go to Logan on Monday morning. We're going to leave around 3:30 AM.

I was in Boston this past Monday and the prior Tuesday to drop off and pick up at South Station.

I normally drive in once or twice a week to maintain my mother's house. It is actually pretty easy if you can pick and choose the time of travel. After 7 PM going into Boston is usually fine. Arriving before 5 AM is usually fine too. There are some times of the day where you are usually okay.

It used to be that the rush hour was just an hour but now it's like three hours.

Back then calls were important. You didn't have spammers and scammers because they had to pay for the call.

It's hard to tell because I think that my phone screens them out. My phone is normally in the basement. If it rings, I get a note on my watch saying the number is calling. If I recognize the number, I call back on the computer. Otherwise it goes to voicemail. My mother gets about 45 calls a day. I can see it on her phone - they show up as missed calls as they never leave a message. I've been at her home for a while and I answered the calls and they were health insurance, utility switching, medicare-related, etc. There seems to be no way to get rid of these things.

Boston Common has a public skating pond. There are bathrooms and a little concession stand too.

It sounds like it could be similar to an egg McMuffin then. I sometimes make pizza muffins with cheese and tomato sauce. The taste could be similar as you have bread under egg, cheese and some meat. I do think that I want to try pizza with red sauce with eggs and maybe bacon.

You mean like bacon and eggs? Never tried that before. My approach would be to take a regular cheese pizza, fry up some bacon and eggs and throw it on. We don't have any leftover pizza to try it in the morning but next time!

My son got his refund around then. I guess it feels like free money when you've forgotten about it.

I cooked it back in the 1980s - so you could do it yourself.

I just pop a leftover slice from the previous evening in the toaster oven, sprinkle some dried red peppers and I'm good to go. I love twice-cooked pizza.

Same thing with living near a golf course.

What are you looking for in terms of work, location, career path?

I just looked at our December bill and it's 712 KWH compared to 530 a year ago and 401 for November for $238.21 in charges. We installed an electric water heater in late November so that may have contributed to higher usage. This is for a 1,200 sq ft townhouse. I think that the highest electric bill we've ever had is around $300 but that was many years ago.

Power costs is $0.22566 per KWH for $160.67 and about $0.09 in delivery charges or about $0.32/KWH.

My experience as a customer for 30 years is that all of the employees are neat when it comes to hair, including facial hair. I've always assumed that it's a requirement there as it isn't the case at other grocery stores.

You'll probably need to add a power circuit to charge it.

I grew up in Newton and spend a day a week there these days taking care of my mother's home.

Newton is very nice in that it's made up of villages and you are generally no more than a mile's walk to any village for shopping. It also has several MBTA stations (Woodland, Waban, Eliot, Newton Highlands and Newton Center) which you could use to get into the Longwood Medical Area. Or you could take Route 9. There's also ample bus service.

The schools were excellent when I went but that was a long time ago. I would assume that they are still good but others could comment or you could look at ratings and reviews.

Newton is convenient as there's easy access to the Mass Pike and Route 128 so you can go east-west and north-south. There is often a lot of traffic on those highways. There's also Newton-Wellesley Hospital which is part of Partners for medical care if you need it in a hurry or if you want something nearby.

A lot of the homes are older and not necessarily in the best of shape and may require work to get to modern standards. Newton is friendly to senior citizens and many live there.

We have a 1,200 sq ft home and last month's combined electric and natural gas was $250. I can't fathom 864 sq ft paying four digits for electricity. I've seen a couple of these kinds of posts recently and am curious about what the issue is. Maybe call one of the television stations so that they can investigate - it would make a great news piece.

>level 1TheEmpressIsIn · 6 hr. agoalways good to see attention brought to the issue, but why pass more laws when the once we currently have are not enforced? speeding, tailgating, stop sign/red light running are rampant in my area. i see it every time i drive, but i rarely see anyone stopped.

It's like Move Over for pedestrians and cyclists. We should all be doing this already without having to have a law; but I guess a lot of people don't think about spacing.

I'd really love it if they did away with the time changes forever.

It's definitely an adjustment not to expect to pay extra on stuff you shop for.

This isn't normal. Last week was more normal.