[Sca-cooks] Dude, like what's up with the power?
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Mon Aug 7 10:58:55 PDT 2006
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is obsolete, and was never designed for the kind of load it is now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
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