One of my jobs that I've taken on now that I am retired from federal
service is to shred our old records from the basement. That's been
going okay. I bought a good shredder last year and it handles almost
everything that I throw at it.
But one of the interesting aspects of doing this is the memories that
come up. As I shredded a pack of bills from 2010, I saw the electric
bills that were $400 and $600 and one was $700 for a month. And that
reminded me of when we had all four kids in the house and it was mid
-summer and the air conditioner was going and all the lights and all
the devices were going.
And how I got all hung up about turning lights off and put in motion
sensors so that lights would turn off automatically because my wife
and my children would leave lights on like the utility room lights and
the garage lights would stay on all night.
The outdoor lights would stay on all night for no reason so I put
motion sensors on them. It's so funny because my oldest son made a
comment recently about, yeah, I bought LED lights and they cost 3
cents a year to run so I don't know why you were so hung up about
electricity.
Part of me would love to show him that $700 electric bill and say,
this is why. Other bills come up that I'm about to shred and I
remember the angst over having to pay it or the money issues that we
were having at the time because of other pressures that were on to pay
for kids trips and activities and dinners out and church events and
Cub Scout and Boy Scout stuff.
So many good memories tied to all these records.
Fun!
#personal #history
