[Sca-cooks] Dude, like what's up with the power?

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Aug 7, 2006, at 1:18 PM, Stephanie Ross wrote:

>
> Hey Adamantius,
>
> Are you still sweltering in the dark, or has Con Ed fixed the  
> problem in
> your area?

No, we've been back among the Lit Up for some time now, although  
there have been scattered outages and reductions elsewhere in the  
city between then and now.

> I went out to dinner with some SCA friends the other night, and
> we were discussing the blackouts. One guy said that the old lines  
> Con Ed
> has in place were kinking and breaking, bad enough that they were
> electrifying manhole covers and puddles that people were stepping  
> in! Yikes!

That's true. Every so often, maybe once or twice a year, we get a  
news item about a fried dog or a shocked or, once or twice, killed  
pedestrian. It's pretty sho... unnerving. The entire infrastructure  
is obsolete, and was never designed for the kind of load it is now  
supposed to be bearing. Of course, a number of authorities warned Con  
Ed about this several times in the past ten years or so, and even  
after the big coastal blackout two years ago, they appear to have  
done zilch to prevent this. In the interim, of course, rates have  
gone up, although no improvements to the infrastructure have been  
made, and recent info indicates their costs have not risen  
significantly.

But never fear: I am reliably informed that the average private power  
consumer in the affected areas will receive an average of $3 in  
rebates against their monthly bill for the power lost. Woo-hoo!

More importantly, I suspect, are the claim forms people can fill out  
to be reimbursed for food that died in the fridge or freezer. I know  
that if this had happened to us, it would have been a major concern,  
because we had just filled the freezer with 40 or 50 shell and rib  
steaks. I am sorely tempted to fill out a claim anyway, not only  
because $3 doesn't begin to do anything but insult me for the  
kilowatt-hours actually lost, and for the general inconvenience, to  
say nothing of the callous incompetence shown when they reduce  
voltage specifically to the areas that house most of the power  
plants, and the inconveniences associated therewith, so the rest of  
the city won't be affected at all.

But yes, everything appears to be back to normal, although we had  
quite a heat wave last week, and were in constant fear of losing  
power at a really bad time.

Adamantius