We got five or six inches of really wet heavy snow last night so of course the power goes out and also the cable, internet and phone lines. The generator faithfully kicked in so Camera Girl and the dogs were warm and cozy while the male contingent was tasked with clearing the snow. Of course, the snow blower is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome so the snow had to be cleared the old-fashioned way.
To add insult to injury the electrical failure is less than five hundred feet from my driveway and so there are the trucks and electrical crew and even some fire fighters standing around looking puzzled. I thought about going and talking to them but reconsidered. I’m guessing some of my neighbors already have and I figure the more times you bother those guys the slower they’ll fix it.
It’s about eighteen hours in and I’m sort of resigned to a world without connectivity. The only phone is an old flip phone that we keep around for emergencies. I charged it up and Camera Girl called the kids to let them know we’re alive. I called work and said I was declaring a snow day. When the driveway was clear I went to a wi-fi location and checked to make sure OCF was up today and that has been the extent of our electronic communications for the day.
No news sites, no X, no nothing. All things considered, it’s not so bad. I guess if the utility reliability continues to decay out here in the hinterlands of Dunwich, I’ll have to ask Elon Musk to provide us with our own dedicated Starlink satellite, a small nuclear power plant and maybe a spaceport. Dunwich is located at the nexus of the Terran/Great Old Ones dimensional rift so a small dedicated interdimensional port makes a lot of sense. If he’s not too busy with his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) role-playing game maybe he could get working on that.
Well, whatever the New England states have done to the power grid it doesn’t bode well for the future. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that a generator with a cut-in switch that can handle the full electrical load of a home is now standard equipment around here. You can be without power for a week in the winter at any time. So natural gas or a large propane tank is what you need. Getting enough gasoline might not be a safe bet if everyone is without power and out searching for fuel.
Well, anyway, while I sit here isolated from Al Gore’s world wide web and information superhighway, I think about how the Democrats want to cut away the last links of reliable energy we still have. The blue states are going full speed ahead to criminalize the internal combustion engine and anything else that uses fossil fuels. I guess that Trump’s term will be a decision point for some parts of the country. Without his support, all of the promised charging stations and other green energy rigamarole won’t be there to allow for the fossil-fuel-free-wonderland they envisioned. It may turn out that their deadlines are not be feasible. And if they insist on them, there may be some serious blowback from the voters. It might become quite interesting for Gavin Newsom. Instead of the bullet-train future he promised he might be leaving on a different rail, one that includes tar and feathers.
Perhaps, when you speak to Mr. Musk, you might suggest he hire First Select-Being Cthulhu as DOGE Chief of Enforcement. Nobody could be better at removing deadwood and non-producing bureaucrats. No fuss, no muss, no pensions to be paid. Not even a burial benefit. I just hope the Great Old One’s stomach(s?) can stand such putrid fare!
I think you’ve inspired a future episode of the Chronicles of Dunwich.
Down here on the Gulf Coast, power outages can be system wide and last for weeks. Longer, unfortunately, that any generator fuel supplies you’re likely to have. But the time of year is such that you’re not likely to die from freezing even though a couple of weeks of raw exposure to Florida heat and humidity may make you want to die.
With that sort of training and preparedness, my local EMC is extremely competent and rapid with dealing with a tree-in-the lines level event.
Tom, it’s a funny thing. When they deregulated the utility companies it seems to have been a license to abandon any responsibility for reliable service. They don’t even pretend to maintain the equipment or keep up with tree trimming. More end of empire stuff.
That describes neither my local EMC nor my small local water supplier, both of whom give stellar service and customer support. Come to think of it, I also really like the local credit union that I bank with.
Common denominator seems to be “local” as opposed to huge, corporate & and distant.
Yes. The electric company is now a British corporation and customer service is basically non-existent.
Corporation, huh? In my later years I seem to be developing a distaste for that word and concept.
Economic efficiency? Even if I acknowledge that, my comeback is, “at what cost?”
Tom, I think a lot of things are going to need fixing.