So a couple of weeks ago I had a PG&E energy auditor come out to my apartment to do an assessment. Basically, I figured that it'd be hypocritical of me to preach energy efficiency without optimizing my own usage. I'll leave it at that since no other energy nerds read my blog here. Ok.

Anyway, Mr. Auditor is pretty impressed with how neuroti..er, efficient our apartment is, but he has one last place to check: the attic. Now, I've never actually been *in* the attic at Presidio Gomez, but I didn't think there would be any real surprises up there. So dude climbs up in the attic and I'm waiting patiently below, and he starts talking about how it's none of his business whether or not someone grows pot, and he smokes the occasional joint himself on the weekend. This strikes me as a bit weird, so I ask him why he's bringing it up. He says that the "grow operation" in the attic should be set up on planks and not on the ceiling - that way the insulation can be left in place. So, apparently the guy that lived in there before us was a grower - that much I knew, but I thought he'd confined it to the 2nd bedroom. Apparently not, and he did such a lousy job moving out his operation that the auditor dude thought that we'd moved the equipment and stashed it with the idea of putting it back after he left. So it appears that the grower had shoveled about 10'x10' square of R39 cellulose insulation off a section of the ceiling and didn't put it back. This pretty much explains why our heating bills suck from November to March.

At least it wasn't more fucking mold.

So, for those of you interested in seeing photographic (albeit low quality) evidence of my trip up Hanson Ridge, you should direct your browser to my flickr account.

I wrote a trail narrative for my nature writing class, and will be posting it in segments both here and at myspace.

Incidentally, for those of you who don't know me, the reedy albino sasquatch perched on the roof of the hut is Gabe, not me.