I put a space heater in the garage for my brother


If it seems that I treat my younger brother harshly, that’s because you don’t know him like I do.

Ed has always been a screw-up, since we were kids.

I went to school, got good grades, started a career, and bought a house. Ed dropped out of school, went to jail a couple of times, and lived in his car. When someone stole his car, Ed found himself with absolutely no place to go, so he showed up on my doorstep. He may be my brother, but he’s also a bum, so I laid down a lot of rules for him to stay here. I work as an HVAC tech, which means I am gone from the house for 50 or 60 hours a week. I told Ed that if I wasn’t home, he had to stay out in the garage. I gave him a cot, a mini-fridge, and a space heater for comfort, but wouldn’t let him in the main house unless I was there to supervise. What can I say, I don’t trust him! It only took a few days before Ed broke the rules, and I found out because of the smart thermostat. Ed doesn’t know how much data my smart thermostat retains. He started sneaking into the house while I was at work and changing the A/C settings, then changing them back before I got home. He didn’t know the smart thermostat keeps a time-stamped log of all adjustments, so he thought he was getting away with it. Now I have to change the locks and kick him out.

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