trivial matters

Three trivial matters:

1. I wrote recently about some things that are obvious that I have missed. Here’s one. With our solar panels we are on a Time of Use rate schedule, where 1:00 to 7:00 pm Monday through Friday May through September is peak rate. Given that, on hot days we precool the house so we can turn off the air conditioner at 1:00 and be feeding back into the grid. I’ve been turning down the thermostat manually at 1:00. It occurred to me that I could move the Day setting on the thermostat from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm so I wouldn’t have to worry about being at the thermostat and turn it down manually at 1:00. Duh. Obvious.
2. I was buzzing around doing errands when I heard the beginning of an interview with Sarah McLachlan on NPR. I was just pulling in to the parking space at the grocery store when it began, so I missed most of it. When I went to look for it later, I couldn’t find it. I thought it might have been on Fresh Air, but I couldn’t find it on that Web site. Then it occurred to me to look at the time stamp on the grocery store receipt. 11:56 am. Ah. That would be Here and Now. I went to the Web site, checked on Thursday’s show, and there it was. Some simple detective work on myself. The interview is here, if you’re interested.
3. Almost universally, Chinese fast food places have two item and three item plates, but the stipulation is that one item must be rice or chow mien. Why not have a one item plate with rice or chow mien and a two-item plate with rice or chow mien? Much cleaner and simpler.