ESTIMATE

I had to call the Kansas Natural Gas company the other day. We're on their "Even Pay" plan to help budget our money. Even so, at this time of year the payments usually go up when I turn on the furnace. So I scrutinized the bill and noticed that it showed no gas usage—at all. So I looked at last month's bill and the month before that—no usage—at all.

So, I talk with a person who calls herself "Tina."

"What's the deal here?" I ask.

Tina goes off-line for a few minutes while the computer pulls up our information. She comes back with,

"That's easy to explain. We noticed last December that your meter was dead, so we've just been using an average of the last three years to estimate this year's usage."
"You knew this last December?"
"Oh, yes, this sort of thing happens all the time."
Yes, I know. It happened at our house about 20 years ago and y'all fixed the meter within the month. When can we expect your crew out to fix the meter?"
"Well, I really have no idea. The schedule is all filled with new construction connections."
"Meanwhile, what happens next month when your meter will have been off for a whole year?"
"We have a formula that calculates your usage. It's really very accurate."
"You'll be hearing from me again."

I intend to call every week until they send someone out to fix the meter or until I talk to my furnace guy. Maybe I'll go all electric. Westar never lets their meters go dead.

The word for the day for November 10, 2008 is "estimate" — Pronunciation: \'es-tə-,māt\
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): es·ti·mat·ed; es·ti·mat·ing
Etymology: Latin aestimatus, past participle of aestimare to value, estimate
Date: circa 1532
1 archaic a: esteem. b: appraise. 2 a: to judge tentatively or approximately the value, worth, or significance of. b: to determine roughly the size, extent, or nature of. c: to produce a statement of the approximate cost of. 3: judge , conclude.

Our quote for today is from the Bible: New Testament, Luke 14:28:

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?

;^)