Utilities

[flemmings]

Electric company now gives one the option of being billed either Time of Use with IMO heart-stopping rates during peak hours, or flat-rate. They'll calculate what you're likely to be charged under each schedule, going by past performance. In my case flat rate saves me literally pennies in winter, rising to a stunning $1.03 a month in summer. But the freedom to do laundry at any hour of the day, a freedom I tasted this spring when the gov't set the fees to mid-rate all day, ìs quite enough to convince me, so flat rate it is.

Also got gas bill today, and even being home all day most days, I'm using half the gas I did last year at this period, so go me.

There's a guy in the neighbourhood, younger than me, who uses a walker but bends his torso almost double to do so. If I used my walker that's what I'd do too, because my legs are happy to clop along if the weight of my upper body is taken off it. This I discovered while zooming about with one of Loblaws' short shopping carts, and that actually is what I really want for walking with. All walkers want you to support yourself on you arms, which is a problem if your arms aen't up to it. Something that takes the torso weight is what's needed, and I'm surprised no one here has designed it. But it took forever for walkers to get over here, decades after I used to see them everywhere in Japan. We lag, is all.

Comments

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

It's actually a known problem that walkers are too short. The fear is that something taller would not be stable if someone were to fall sideways. My folks and I also prefer grocery carts!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

My walker is actually a chest-high one but still engages the elbows more than I care for. I'd actually like to figure out how to lower it so I could walk straight-armed with it. Theoretically I can do this but not without a wrench and upper body strength.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

That's cool! I've only seen the short ones in real life. You need to snag someone younger and stronger to help you adjust your walker to the right height!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I was thinking older and stronger, like my brother. I don't know if the younger generation has the same male gene for Working Out How It Works ('form follows function') that he inherited from my father's.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Yes, your brother totally works. I should have said handy rather than young. There are kids who have that, but not as many as there used to be.