CODY SOSSAMON PUBLISHER Everyone, it seems, is preaching about conserving power and/or gas these days.

The Gulf oil spill only seemed to fuel the fire, so to speak. Electric cars are all the rage, with more new and improved versions continuously hitting the showrooms.

I’ve seen more news shows about “alternative” energy in the past few months than I had seen previously in all of my 59 years (59? That seems rather old when I type it.) including wind “farms,” solar energy, and bio-fuels to name just a few. One of the shows was about a bio-diesel fuel country singer Willie Nelson is promoting at a truck stop in Texas. Ol’ Willie’s branching out, I guess.

My family and friends got a rude awakening about conservation while on our recent trip to Italy. We had to pay extra for the electricity at the house we rented. I understand that’s pretty much a common practice there.

When we arrived at our “villa” — that’s what they call rental homes in Italy so they can charge more for them — the caretaker took me to the electric meter where she carefully explained the numbers and wrote them down. I was informed that when we left, we’d do the same and figure out how much power we had consumed.

I had been forewarned by our rental agency to expect to pay up to 1.000 euro for a week’s worth of electricity. (The period in 1.000 is not a mistake. In Europe, periods are used where we use commas.) Passo d’Elefante is a huge villa (it really does fit the definition: a large and luxurious country residence). I got lost in it a couple of times and never even saw some of the rooms. Conversations about this room or that left me saying, “Where was that room? I didn’t see it.”

Anyway, we ended up spending only 400 euro (about $500) for electricity for five days. There were 14 of us, but we were gone for most of every day. The air conditioning was only turned on from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. We only washed a few loads of clothes, and we didn’t cook much at all. Speaking of washing clothes. That’s an adventure. Italian washing machines are veeeerrry sllloooow. And dryers? It’s quicker to hang your “warsh” out in the sun.

Gasoline is pretty expensive, but the cars get great mileage. Almost all are straight drive (see a previous column) and most are very small. Vespas are very popular, especially in the cities.

My wife said the reason electricity is so expensive is that Italy has to import most of its power. Since I have no reason to dispute that assertion and it sounds reasonable (I saw no power plants), I assume that has something to do with the price of electric power.

This newfound sense of conservation must have followed her home as the other night I walked into our bedroom where she was standing in front of her sink brushing her teeth. In the dark.

“What are you doing?” “Conserving energy.”

I had to laugh. Just had to.

You see, I had just come from the kitchen/living room area which was lit up like “The Reservation” on a Friday night during football season.

“Conserving energy? There’s at least 20 lights on out there!” “No there aren’t!” I walked back to the kitchen to count the “on” lights.

She was right.

There were only 14 lights on in those two rooms. That’s not counting the two televisions. Or the light, fan and TV on the porch.

Like we all do when caught, she retaliated.

“Well, watering the grass last month cost us a hundred dollars.”

She was GREATLY exaggerating. Our entire bill was well under $100 and only about $15 more than normal.

And, I pointed out, during the entire conversation she had continued brushing her teeth while the water at her sink was flowing freely.

“You do the same thing.”

She had me there.

You’d think I would have learned after 19 years of wedded bliss, wouldn’t you?

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger