…does this make me an oppressive Socialist dictator?

Seriously: I know that one of the weapons of the underground resistance, wherever you may find them, is in the sabotage of civilian infrastructure. Take out trains, storage facilities, life support. Reduce the civilians’ desire to continue a conflict.

And that’s exactly what my kids are doing to me. Toward what end, I’m not sure, but this week so far they’ve

– turned the air conditioning down to SEVENTY degrees, on the hottest day of the year. I woke up and thought, dang, it’s cold, which is not usually what you think when the low temp is 90 degrees, and realized that it was 73 degrees in the house (five degrees colder than normal) and that the poor, beleaguered a/c unit (which doesn’t know that it’s supposed to be dead, because it’s sixteen years old and all it’s siblings around the neighborhood have been turned into Soylent Green or whatever it is you do with old freon) had been running ALL NIGHT LONG, valiantly trying to turn the interior of my house into an icicle; and

– stuffed a pillow into the kitchen freezer, which normally wouldn’t be that bad but the stuffer neglected to notice that the stuffee (in this case, the pillow) had lodged the freezer open just a bit, but enough to start producing frost and condensation in a supposedly frost-free environment, because the freezer was standing open for SIX HOURS.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the freezer and found a pillow.

Now, I understand the concept of both these terrorist actions: it’s hot. Both actions would tend to make life cooler. But it’s not like the Evil Socialist Oppressor (in this scenario, me) is trying to make people suffer, or is just trying to save a penny. I keep the house at 78 degrees and there’s a pool and there’s lots of cold beverages and ceiling fans and all kinds of stuff.

I’m not Evil, I just have severely limited funds.

But the boys are accomplishing their goal of demoralizing the Establishment. I wake up each morning, not knowing what I’ll find. My desire to go to work and continue supporting these destructive little trolls is waning.