Too tired to write anything tonight, but I have plenty to comment on in the coming days, I’ll just have to post when I can. Our power was out 14 hours yesterday – long after the storm passed our area. A major thunderstorm interrupted power to larger cities nearby, but when I left for work Tuesday, our power was working just fine. I returned to a power failure that began at ten a.m. that day. I spoke to a neighbor who said she had called Com Ed repeatedly and could get no answers. News reports said we might not have power until Thursday!
If I wanted long unexpected stretches without power, I’d move to Beirut. Reduced to living like Riverbend, I hunkered down for the evening angry, but only mildly inconvenienced. At most, I could lose the contents of my freezer. Fortunately it was not winter and I did not have to put little wool sweaters on my lizards. And yes, I have some for just such an occasion.
Another neighbor from two houses down met us on the road where we were all congregating in envy of the guy on the hill who had a generator. HE was probably watching Rescue Me. (I’m very ticked I missed my favorite show)
This poor soul told me of his 1200 gallon salt water fish tank that was destroyed by the lack of power. I can’t imagine how much love, labor and expense went into that tank and how he must have felt as each little Nemo and Dory went belly up. I hope he can sue ComEd. He certainly deserves reimbursement.
Al decided to call the power company. I did not think he would reach a live human. I figured at best they would have a recording stating they were working on the problem. At worst, he would be on 'ignore' for an hour while told his call was very, very important to them.
Amazingly, he spoke to an agent who said the power should be on at midnight. We went to bed hopeful. I swear at midnight exactly it was magically restored. Hmmm. First, the neighbor can't get any answer. Suddenly they know when? I think it proved the power was not a 'outage' but a deliberate 'takedown'. They took my power away because I'm a nobody.
Com Ed, the most expensive electricity supplier in the nation, is asking for a rate hike. They are running commercials on TV boo-hooing about how they haven’t had a rate hike in years (we pay triple what neighboring states do) and need to update their equipment. Supposedly it features their CEO or something. I don’t think so. I think they just hired a friendly looking guy to look sympathetic and soften the blow of rate hikes and brown outs.
Coincidence? I think not. If I complain of no power, they will tell me to vote for a ‘system upgrade’. They also run all kinds of ads about how we are working all night in all kinds of weather to give you service. I’d like to run my own ad of workers sleeping in the truck beneath a sparking transformer on a pole or a the quickie-mart security cam footage of a worker on extended break trying to decide if Cheetos or Fritos go better with Yoo-Hoo.
I plan on deducting 1/31 of my bill this month.
I truly believe that our power was taken down to give it to another area. It’s highly suspicious that the only houses affected seemed to be the ones that spoke out against the city’s imperialistic inclinations. Can I help but suspect that the power company called the city and asked what grid they could shut off, and the city happily provided our addresses? It’s all just a conspiracy to get me to annex into their evil city.
I envision the person who facilitated the selling out of my neighborhood to developers (henceforth I shall refer to this person as the Great Satan) as sitting in a hot tub with the air conditioning going full blast. Raising a glass of expensive champagne, they laugh at me and my candles, whispering, “Come over to the dark side. We have power here…”
I will not capitulate. I will buy MRE’s, water purification pills and a generator. I will not be beholden to any city or utility. I will survive. I have matches and a gun. I am not afraid to use them. I have Mr. Right digging a latrine right now..
3 comments:
I always enjoy your posts! The Zilla one was extremely amusing! I worry about power outages in the winter also, because I too have a bearded dragon (I think that's how I found your blog, actually-I forgot that). Before I moved in with my beautiful wife, she was without power for over a week one January. I'm not sure what I would do now, I guess take him to someone who had power. After Katrina, we almost took in some beardies from one of the shelters, but a vet in town took them instead. I would have enjoyed having some extra dragons! I just have one, and he has no one to wave to or puff up for (although he puffs up for me sometimes when he wants to be fed). We also have a neighbor down the street who is the envy of the neighborhood, because he has a generator. We keep talking about getting one, but they are so expensive!
okay, so i'm reading this post, and i'm thinking, you've obviously lived with reliable electricity for WAY too long, then my bullshit light started blinking.
one of the big surprises to me when i left illinois and lived in other parts of the country was just how unreliable the electricity was there. utah was good for a couple hour outage at least once a week, milwaukee it was more rare, but harder to predict. here in beautiful omaha, we only get the bi-monthly five minute outage, but we get the two to three times a week two second blip that makes you reset all the clocks in the house. i use my cell phone as an alarm clock to make sure something goes off, before then it was my trusty winnie-the-pooh wind up alarm clock.
when the power goes out, it's what week will it be fixed, not what hour... unless you live in a predominately white neighborhood.
com-ed is the most expensive electricity supplier in the nation? i decided to check out your facts. i went to the dept of energy's web site and obtained the latest information on electricity providers (http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/esr/esr_sum.html, table #6). com-ed ranked 1059th even after eliminating providers in alaska and hawaii. so i thought i would check out only the top 100 providers (based on # of customers). com-ed came in 45th in that group, with the lowest rate per kwh of providers with over 2M customers. exactly which neighboring states do you pay triple than? if you do it is in taxes on the electrical service, not on the electrical service itself.
i suspect that the power company yawned when the city called and begged them to shut off your neighborhoods power specifically.
i am also certain that mr right got distracted while going to dig the latrine by something to do with the MP3 player.
Oooh, Bummer on the electricity thing. I can't even imagine the poor guy with the salt water tank. Heartache AND expense -- what a blow!
I have to brag a little bit and except for the 60 amp wiring, the power here is fairly decent. I do believe that you may be right about your power being turned off because they were giving it to someone else. Generators may not be the only answer -- you might consider a windmill..... you've got the space - check it out!
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