Daily Report: Power

We got the electric bill today: 7,000 pisos... about $140. (That's compared to $90 when we were at Camilla homes.) I'm really surprised at how much our bill went up.

At first I thought the extra money was being spent on keeping too many lights on at night, because as far as appliances and such go, our selection is barely different than what we had before. However, I use nothing except the 5-watt energy-saving fluorescent bulbs here, and $50 per month by my math is approximately 3,500 hours per day of 5-watt lighting... or 150 light bulbs burning continuously.

The most obvious place to look then is the air conditioner. We do run it a bit more than we used to... although not by much. Also, in the old house, Susan would run the air conditioner in her room occasionally, which does not happen now. Still though, $50 per month is enough to run the air conditioner for 20 hours per day.

Well, the extra electricity is getting used somewhere. I conclude it's just getting used everywhere: We're just being sloppy with our power consumption. Plus perhaps electricity in Jasaan is a little more expensive than Cagayan De Oro.


Here is the work that was done on my
bike: This is the rear disc brake
that was shoehorned onto the rear
axle. It needs some adjustment, as it
still is not strong enough a brake.

Here you can see the two running
lights mounted on either side of the
front tire. They drain the battery
too quickly and place to heavy of a
burden on the electrical system to
be used at the moment.I got my MotorStar back from Mechanic Jun last night. There are two problems: First, every piece of the bike's electrical system is made out of bamboo and twisted tin strips. Adding the extra electrical doodads onto the bike overloads the system on a regular basis. Second, the alternator on the motorcycle is providing less power than the motorcycle uses with the new electrical doodads turned on, and eventually the battery is drained. That needs to be replaced. I'm taking it back to Mechanic Jun this weekend to get the fixes completed.

It can still be driven; I just need to switch off the new road lights (and the headlights) for a while to let the battery recharge a bit... or even without a charge, the bike still has an alternative kickstart that doesn't need the battery.

So, with that in mind, Epril and I drove into CDO this evening.

First, we went out to Kinse Amigos, where I chatted with Attorney Joe for a while about the Hunt-Songcuya affair. I found what he had to say to be very informative, and most of all I agree with his two main points: First, it needs to be figured out who spent what money, when, and where. Second, there is the question of Thomas Hunt's health, and whether he would ever have been given a doctor's permission to travel at any point during his hospitalization... whether he could ever have gone home to Arizona alive. The doctors and the hospital are the primary place where this story must now focus for new information.

After that, I went with Micheal Turner to a meeting of the CDO chapter of The Fraternal Order of Philippine Eagles, of which he is a member. I'm going to join, I've decided. I took a pass on an invitation to Rotary because I'm not a business owner or executive. I'm still up in the air about The Masons. That would be my natural choice since I was in Demolay (a Masonic youth organization) when I was a teenager. Maybe later. I'm going to try to set up a chapter of Eagles here in Jasaan.

After that, it was a late drive back to Jasaan. No mechanical problems with the motorcycle, but I couldn't use the new running lights because they drained the battery.