It is just too hot outside!  It seems that all over the country, nearly everyone is in the midst of experiencing a huge heat wave that won't seem to let up for all that long.  Even the temperatures in the middle of the night are unbearable.   Having lived in Florida for six years, I'm pretty accustomed to excessive heat and humidity, but along with that I'm also accustomed to the fact that it's going to rain and cool things down every day between three and four thirty in the afternoon.  This is just not the case up in the Midwest...it's just hot, and it stays hot with no afternoon cool off.  Because of my time in Florida I consider myself to be pretty resilient against the heat.  I usually can survive with just the ceiling fan in my dining room running, as well as a box fan running in whatever room I happen to be relaxing, napping, or working in in my apartment.  I usually steer clear of using the air conditioner for several reasons.  First and foremost, running the air conditioner is just so expensive.  I don't want to fall victim to a doubled electricity bill over the Summer months like so many people do.  Secondly, I would much rather be a little bit too warm than a little bit too cold.  Since the thermostat on my air conditioner controls doesn't work all that great, I always end up getting way too cold and having to get up and shut it off anyways.  But, like I said, my main reason is about the money.  My roommate was gone out of the state for the majority of the summer (seven weeks or so), and so that meant that I was stuck here paying for the electricity and other utilities myself.  Our apartment complex takes care of the water bill as part of our monthly rent, so I decided that it would be more economical as well as more refreshing to cool myself down with a nice cold shower a few times a day for free, rather than running up the electricity bill.  As a result of my careful air conditioning budgeting, I managed to keep my monthly electricity bills on or around forty dollars per month, which is way lower than they have ever been.  During the winter time, when we obviously have to keep the thermostat set at a decent temperature for the furnace, our bills usually end up somewhere around eighty to ninety dollars each month.  This is, of course, because we two Florida boys need to stay warm...being cold all day every day is just not option.  Probably another reason that I managed to keep the electricity bill very low is that I haven't had to be on my computer as much during the summer as I would during the school year.  Plus with my roommate gone, there isn't a need to have multiple computers on, twice the bedroom lights, and all those other things.  My roommate is also the kind of guy who doesn't like to "sit in the dark" while watching television or a movie.  I, on the other hand, would much rather close the blinds in the living room and sit in the cool dark house, rather than wasting electricity and money.  Why is it that I'm always the frugal one?...regarding our electricity bill and otherwise?!  The real experiment will be seeing what our next utility bill ends up being now that my roommate is back from his Summer travels.  If things start to skyrocket upwards on the bill, it will be all too clear who is to blame for the increase.  Until then, I'm going to try to convince him to keep his electricity use to a minimum and opt to use the fans rather than the air conditioner.