Growing up, we didn’t have much.
My mom took care of her three kids with no support from my father. We grew up below the poverty line, and scrounging for every spare dollar. It truly didn’t help that my two older brothers were massive pigs. They ate all of the food in the house before it could even be properly put away in the refrigerator. They regularly ruined their clothing and required my mom to purchase new threads for them. They often got into trouble and required immediate legal assistance to bail them out of jail. In a nutshell; my brothers made a bad name for all of us. That’s why my mom installed a smart thermostat at some point and had it password protected. She knew better than to let my brothers have free reign of the indoor air temperature. When they were permitted to make changes to the central HVAC system, we wound up with sky high energy bills. They couldn’t control themselves and often abused the central heating system and air conditioner when given the chance. Later down the road, my mom had to pay for emergency HVAC repairs when the heating and cooling system broke down unexpectedly. As a result, we lost our air quality control privileges and she never shared the smart thermostat password with any of us after that day. That is, except for the time I came down with pneumonia. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how serious my respiratory illness was after leaving the hospital. I was burning hot and freezing cold all at once… but I knew it must have been pretty severe on the morning that my mom unlocked the smart thermostat. She told me I could change the indoor air temperature from the comfort of the couch until she got home… Just don’t tell your brothers.
