I hope you had a great November. If you’re a veteran, I hope you had a good Veterans Day and were able to phone an old buddy. For the deer hunters out there, I also hope you were successful. I was unable to bag the thirty pointer with my combination AK 57 Uzi radar laser triple-barrel double-scoped heat seeking shotgun. Maybe next year.
So here we are, heading into another winter. Really, if you put it into perspective, we’ve got it pretty good here in Wisconsin. The ground in the southern half of the state doesn’t typically turn to iron until the second week of December and it begins to thaw again in March. December, January and February are the months to watch in regard to low temperatures but that’s only about 90 days. Remember how quickly summer passed? Winter will do the same and you’ll be in a t-shirt and shorts again before you know it.
With the holidays coming up, if you call in for your propane, please help our delivery personnel get home to their families by checking your propane tank and calling us when it gets just under 30%. Please keep the path to the propane tank free of debris that could hurt one of our employees or create a slip or trip hazard. If a hazard gets buried under snow, it’s still a hazard albeit a more dangerous one. If your road is too dangerous for our drivers, we will not deliver. If we can’t get up your driveway, I’m certain a fire truck or an ambulance can’t get up there either.
If you are on our route delivery, thank you. If you booked your propane this year, we will be holding your deposit until the end of May when it will be rolled to your open account and can be used for the following year’s contract (as was noted on your contract). From a bookkeeping standpoint that seemed to be the best way to proceed as the way we were doing it created billing questions and increased the likelihood of a billing error.
Although the cold weather is already here, if you haven’t had your furnace checked out, call your heating contractor. Be sure to replace the filters in your furnace every 3 months for the standard filters and every 6 to 12 months for AprilAire filters, which seem to be getting more common. Dirty air filters slow down the air flow and you won’t get optimum performance out of your furnace.
We know that snow is coming but we don’t know how much or when. Please ensure that you keep the regulator on your house out of the snow. There is a vent on the bottom to let air in and out so that the diaphragm inside can move to supply propane vapor to your house in a regulated manner. If the vent gets plugged with ice from melting snow, the diaphragm can’t flex and it won’t allow propane into the furnace, which means no heat.
December is also a good time to be replacing the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors if yours are battery operated. I just walked out to the Do It Best and they’ve got a ready supply of batteries and detectors for purchase. Please don’t let your legacy be a warning to others. Check your detectors and replace them if necessary. By statute, one is required on each floor of your home, including the basement.
I hope you have a fantastic Christmas and I’ll see you back here next year. Thank you for your business.
