Always a good discussion with you!  Maybe because we so often agree!  LOL  It just has to be one of those "brilliant minds..." things! LOL

We got a good bit of rain yesterday morning (though the local weathermen said no, or very little).  I should have known....  though I did not wash a car, I did get a load of wood and didn't unload it out of my beater truck.  So now it's wet.  Should have been a sign!  Looks like you folks down South got a pretty good drenching.

More OT:  When they built my house, someone was actually thinking.  It stays cool in the Summer if I keep the blinds closed.  And, for the Winter months, I've got a wood stove.  Two story house, with thermostats upstairs and down.  Fire up the stove, heat rises to the intake ducts in the second floor ceiling, set the upstairs thermo on "cool" at 80 degrees, heat the entire house with the forced air ventilation.  Gas bill is never over $40/month.  I get bad wood cut-offs from the local lumber yard for $5 a truck load - already cut to the right size.  It requires some exercise, but I find it gratifying to heat the place to "toasty" levels for almost nothing.  Plus I get the pleasure of fire nightly - which I really enjoy.  Wish I had a house with this set-up when I lived in the Sierras!  There, the folks' large house had three fireplaces and two wood stoves - but a big house with an open-beam ceiling.  We went through 12-15 cords of Cedar/Pine every winter (and, of course, I had to help cut the trees and split that wood every Summer!  Better deal though - $5 for an annual permit to get marked trees in the surrounding forests).

Something to thing about if you ever move to "cold country".

SGE