Crazy weather

I know I talk about the weather a lot on this blog. It's a bit of an obsession. I always have to know what the current temperature is. I have a nifty utility on my computer (a Dashboard widget) called Degrees Down Under which gets current updates from the Bureau of Meterology and tells me not only the temperature, but the apparent temperature (so I've got two of these widgets). Then there's TheBom which does basically the same thing, and the built-in Weather widget that comes with MacOSX. I also have a thermometer in Elora's room, and would have more around the house if I had them! I don't know why I simply must know what the temperature is, right now. Weird, huh?

Anyway, the weather at the moment is absolutely crazy. In the last couple of weeks we have had 30+ degree days, huge thunderstorms, beautiful sunny days and we were all rejoicing that summer was on its way. Then today it was cool, even cold! I think it was about 18°C today! Brr. I was just about to wash and put away all the blankets and jumpers. And ring up a guy about air conditioning.

Which brings me to another point. Everyone knows that we are having a wee problem with climate change and energy use, right? I want an air conditioner but I have no intention of using it constantly - only on days when the temp is right up there, like mid-high 30's. And it's mainly for the kids' rooms. We've had our febrile convulsion frights and definitely do not want any more of those. But our next door neighbours (the other side, not my folks!) recently installed fully ducted aircon in their badly designed townhouse/duplex. The big outside unit sits in their backyard just under our bedroom window (thanks!) and is noisy as hell. I know this because they use it all the time. Case in point: yesterday was a beautiful balmy 26°C. We revelled in the gloriousness of it. Did four loads of washing. Locked the kids outside all day. Had dinner on the back porch. And then in the evening the cool change came. We opened up the house to cool it down. Lovely.

Next door had their house closed up and that bloody A/C whirring. I couldn't believe it! I would have knocked on their door and told them to open their windows except for the facts that:
- they have no door bell, only a big huge fence around the perimeter of the property;
- they don't have any windows on this side of the house (so presumedly no air flow); and
- the wife is due to give birth any minute now and I know what it's like to be big and huge and hot. Not nice. Especially since she grew up in Europe where they don't have hot weather, apparently.

Oh, and they don't have insulation, either. Well, they do, but it's in big plastic bags in their backyard waiting to be installed. I don't know how they got away with that! Build a house dodgily, rent it out for years and only fix it up properly when you finally move in yourself? Ack. Well, at least they concreted over their entire lawn so they won't waste water by watering it. Unlike the other neighbours next to them who water their garden every day. And they don't have a water tank. But I'll get onto that another day.

Well, I'll stop my complaining now. The neighbours are actually quite friendly, when we do see them. They know my dad better since he was here when they first built the place, and always ask after him. I just wish people would do a bit more to combat these environmental problems, myself included. I guess sometimes laziness wins out, huh?