Thursday, May 12, 2011

The 12th Day Of May In Texas Has Dawned With The Power On And No Thunder Booming

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell this 12th morning of May it looks as if the day has dawned serene and calm.

Yesterday's multi-hour thunderstorm that hammered Fort Worth and most of North Texas, was exhausting.

But, more exhausting than hours of loud booms, downpouring rain and bright flashes of electricity, was being with out manmade electricity for hours.

Even though the period without power was during daylight time it was so dark I had to use a flashlight in order to find whatever I was looking for.

I lived in the East Thunderbird neighborhood of East Mount Vernon, Washington from 1985 til 1998. In those 13 years I never once lost power. The TV cable would go out every once in awhile. But never the power.

Since I have been in Texas I could not tell you how many times the power has gone out. I can tell you it has been dozens of times. Just in the past 30 days the power has gone off at least 4 times. I joke that I know what it is like to live in Baghdad. But it really is not funny.

In the area I lived in in Washington the power lines were underground. Is that the difference that caused the Washington power delivery to be reliable? Or is the power delivery in Texas just one more area where Texas lags a bit behind?

What I know for certain is losing power yesterday messed me up. I had a big project I needed to get finished yesterday afternoon. Now postponed til today.

It seems to me that when the power goes out, for whatever reason, some sort of compensation should be given. Krogers had to close yesterday when the power went out. Krogers lost money. Even though we pay for a metered service, only paying for what we use, we are also paying for that service to be delivered reliably.

Okay, enough with the whining for now. It's time to go swimming.

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