Blog Time Stamping

Just to alleviate any confusion, I have no idea why Blogger time stamps blog entries to reflect only one time zone in which their offices are located. Right now, as I write this, it is 6:05 p.m., but once it is posted, I have no doubt that it will appear to have been written during my workday, giving a mistaken impression that I am wasting time at work writing this when nothing could be further from the truth. I write this blog at home in my free time on my laptop, but the time stamps can be confusing. They are not accurate for Eastern Standard Time. In fact, it appears that blog entries are posted to Pacific Coastal Time, three hours earlier than the time zone in which I live, or some other time zone in which I do not live. Either way, the time stamping in no way reflects the accuracy of when these blogs are actually written. So for those of you who are reading this, do not get the impression that I write this while at work. I write it at home on my laptop and always have. I want that clearly understood. Do not mistake the time stamp for Eastern Standard Time. I assume that Blogger is located somewhere in California on the west coast and reflects its time zone as its official time stamping of blog entries. It's all very weird and can lead to all kinds of mistaken impressions. So just to reiterate, Blogger's time stamping is set up to reflect where its offices are located, and I think that Blogger is owned by Google, which is out of Malibu, California, in the Pacific Coastal Time Zone. If I could figure out some way to make this blog correctly reflect the actual time during which I wrote it, I would, but I have yet to figure out how to do that. I'm not savvy enough to know how to manipulate the time stamping on Blogger and if anyone knows the secret to doing that, please share. I'd love for this to correctly reflect the time during which I write these blogs. If that isn't possible, then folks will just have to understand that Blogger time stamps things to Pacific Coastal Time, three hours earlier than the time I have actually written my blog, causing some confusion about when I actually wrote and posted things here, most certainly NOT Eastern Standard (or Daylight Savings) Time.

HOME, FOR NOW

I'm only the barest bit moved into new quarters, at least enough to make it feel as much home as is possible, given my very short time here. I'm trying to get used to the new sounds, smells and sights of the place. A neighbor has a dog that seems to bark a lot at times, there are some rambunctious and very friendly kids next door who always greet me with "Hi, neighbor!" and this street seems to have far more traffic than I ever imagined, but it is an old road dating well back to the 19th century. It can be seen in old town plats, so a good number of the homes here are fairly old. There was once a house across the street that was torn down a few years back, an old Greek Revival that was probably of mid-19th century vintage. There are some other homes along this street that appear to be fairly old as well. The new house is probably of very early 20th century vintage. It's your standard, sturdy old house with lots of woodwork that fortunately has not been painted over for the most part. The windows are a problem in that they mostly do not stay open on their own, have no screens or storms and are, by all accounts, rather drafty. If I had my druthers, I'd like to see the landlord replace them all with energy efficient double pane replacement windows, but that's just too much to hope for. In all likelihood, the windows will need to have plastic sheeting over them during the winter months in order to stay as warm as is humanly possible.

I'm a bit concerned, though, having learned today that the downstairs neighbor is moving out in a few weeks. If that apartment goes unoccupied during the winter, that is where the thermostat is, and I will want access to it so I do not freeze to death during the winter months without heat available. I'm hoping that someone who works around the same hours as I do will move in so that we can turn the thermostat down when we go to work and turn it back up when we come home so the thing isn't running 24/7 during the colder months of the year and running the heat bill up too high. I suppose that the utilities will have to go in my name until someone moves in downstairs or something. I don't know. This comes as very sudden and unexpected news and really caught me off guard. I had been hearing what sounded to me like furniture being moved around recently downstairs and had begun to wonder what was going on. Well, now I know. The neighbor is probably busy packing to move soon. Where to, I do not know. But the downstairs apartment will be vacant in a few weeks, which leaves me concerned about the issue of utilities and paying the entire cost myself for a while until someone else moves in, if, indeed, the apartment is rented soon. I just hope that it's not some noisy and obnoxious college student who will run up utility bills leaving lights, heat and water on too long. I do not need that! I'm nervous enough as it is about the utility costs here. My neighbor gave me the latest electric bill and it seems a tad high, but he tends to leave lights on downstairs. I turn everything off when I leave for work so as to minimize electric costs. I've switched all of my lightbulbs to energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. I turn off my ceiling fans when I am not home. Fortunately, it's been a cooler than normal summer so far, so I have not needed air conditioning and I dearly hope that it stays that way. So living here so far is turning out to be full of unexpected surprises in more ways than one.........