Friday, June 19, 2009

Snibbles 'N' Bits

Got a call from the new guy, i.e. the guy taking over from the old guy at the brokerage office I do business with. I have an appointment with him next week for a portfolio review. I told him I hadn't looked at a statement since before the election last year because I really did not want to know how low my portfolio had sunk. (After all, what could I do about it that I hadn't already done, i.e. vote against the people who helped sink the economy? And we all know how much good THAT did me.) He ran some quick numbers and told me that while on average, people had lost nearly half the value of their portfolios, mine had only gone down by about 10 percent. Good news, then.

Completely unrelated to this, in the course of having the TV cable redone last week, I decided that since everything in back had to be unhooked and reconnected anyway, this would be a good time to redo all the various power strips and surge protectors.

So now, only the things that have to stay on all the time (the lizard lights and fountain pumps) are plugged into a power strip that stays turned on.

Everything else--TV, VCRs, DVD players, cable box--is plugged into a strip that gets turned off except when one of the above toys is in use. And since about 99 percent of my TV watching happens in the bedroom, the living room arrangement will stay turned off 99 percent of time time.

I should know within a few months whether those TV commercials that tell you to do this sort of thing to save power are actually onto something.... Has anyone had experience with this? Are you saving any money?


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