little long, but i could use some help w/ my first post here...

i'll start by saying that i was "given" a BP at the end of december 2006. my wife works at the apt complex we live at. well, one of the punk residents left some stuff in their garage when he moved, including a ~2ft BP in a 10gal glass viv!! now mind you it was in the garage, during a ~40F cold spell, for at least 30 days!!

well, the day the workers found him and gave him to us, i immediately got him a UTH (zoo-med repti-therm 10-20 gal), a heat lamp (50W red bulb) and water bowl (there was a log hide already in the cage). mind you, i had some gopher snake about 15 years ago, so i knew a little, but i didnt have time to do the research on what to buy, where, and exact cage solutions!! i actually found the care sheet here and tried to quickly get the snake some heat and food.

he has actually done pretty well since then, some 3 months later. i have made a few mistakes, as the humidity was ~30-35% during his first shed (once i realized he was having trouble shedding, i soaked him in water and helped him through that). he also developed dented eyes, another sign i read of low humidity. i then found the glass viv sticky post and covered the top of his screentop and now have the humidity ~55 -65 at all times, so i'm good in that department.

my temps are a little low, ~86 hot side, ~80 low. this is w/ the UTH and lamp on one side, nothing on cold side. on to a few questions...

1 - i am considering getting a flexwatt 11" and johnson controller from mgreptiles.com to replace the zoo-med.
- i am considering this in order to better control the temps (i'm in southern california, and our apt will range from 70-85F as we try to save energy w/ no heating or AC!!) and to raise the hot side temp so that i might not need to use the lamp at all.

2 - i am using reptibark, and i have noticed that the top layer is not nearly as hot at the bottom layer, which is leading me to switch to aspen bedding. does this sound like a good idea?

3 - if i do switch to aspen bedding, do i need to put anything over the UTH or flexwatt in order to prevent burning my BP?
- i know that the aspen can get moved around by the snake, and i have read that they like to burrow in it. this just makes me scared of him buring himself if nothing is between him and the bottom glass.

4 - my BP trys to escape every night by pressing his head against the screen top. is this normal??
- he loves to be held! when he is trying to escape at night, i open the cage and simply rest my hand on the corner of the cage, and he always like to climb all over my arm and shoulders.

5 - he is about to shed for the second time soon. he had really cloudy eyes for 2 days, then they cleared up a little, but no shed!! he looks dull and ready to shed. is my humidity too high?? why would they go really cloudy to clearer w/ no shed??

6 - i included a pic of his home . i am already planning rearrange it to have to identical hides on either side, water bowl in the middle, and i plan on leaving the grapevine since i paid over $15 for it!! any other suggestions though?

again, thanks for the help, as i kinda got thrown into this whole BP owner thing and i'm asking these questions to make sure that i'm doing everything right!! i have been reading a ton of posts and have learned a lot this last week while on spring break. any other suggestions, i'de love to hear them, thanks!!