It's electric. (Boogie-woogie-woogie.)

If you hate tree-huggers, you will love this story. Last month, I decided that my household was using too much electricity, and we needed to decrease our footprint for the good of the planet. So, I started turning off the computers regularly each night. I made better use of fans and waited until much later in the day to turn on the air conditioning, which was rarely set below 75 anyway. And, most importantly, we stopped using the clothes dryer, which is also in our bedroom. I hung up every piece of clothing, except for some onesies we tie-dyed for my niece-to-be. (Note: It was a lot of fun to tie-dye those baby clothes, and would make a cool baby shower activity. We bought a pack of onesies in three sizes, to get Maine-based Baby Charlotte through her first year in California hippie style.)

For an entire month, I did not use the dryer, which meant that my life pretty much revolved around laundry. But I’m helping the planet, I told myself as I brought in clothes so warm to the touch from the high temperatures that felt like they had been in the dryer. I experimented with homemade fabric softener before finally buying it (unscented, which is pricey!) when complaints arose regarding the excessive exfoliating properties of bath towels and washcloths. (Wimps.) My back ached from lugging baskets in and out of the house, my husband’s boxer short patterns were now dinner-table conversation fodder and we had to run a wet clothes gauntlet to get from the garage to the house. But the savings would be worth it, right?

As the weeks passed, I was eager to see what effect it would have on our electric bill, particularly as we’d just had the “smart meter” installed. Every time I carried another heavy load of wet laundry out to the lines that crisscrossed our backyard, I smugly told myself that the savings would be worth it. My husband could not resist an occasional smirk as I speculated on how much money we’d save. Fifty dollars? One hundred? ”Seriously, honey, this is going to be such a great thing for our budget, and we’re helping the planet.” I could not wait to have proof that my hands-on housework à la “Little House on the Prairie” was paying off.

So imagine my surprise on Friday when we received our MID bill and it was *double* what it had been the month before. Double. More than my shock and horror, I must admit, was the awareness that my husband would smirk all the more at my spectacular failure to be Ma Ingalls. It wasn’t long before I donned my tin hat and speculated that perhaps an, um, previous altercation with MID concerning a locked gate and people with faded ID who may or may not have been actual MID employees had evolved into some, um, creative math on my bill?

Oh boy, was I dreading that phone call: “Hi. Remember me, the caller from June who said either I’m crazy or you’re lying? Yeah. Uh. Well, I think my electric bill is too high because I was Pioneer Mama this month and exacted much deprivation on my family and spent most of my days doing laundry and had to wait a whole three minutes for my computer to boot up each morning and the bill STILL went up. Sure … I’ll hold.”

But then, Friday night, I was reading the letters to the editor in Friday’s paper, when I found “New meters boost MID energy bill.” I’m so relieved. I may be crazy, but at least I’m not alone.