Out walking

[bill_schubert]

It is mid fifties here so icicles are gone as is most of the snow.  The sound of chainsaws fills the air as the community behind us, the one that still has trees, cleans up their land.  

I just got back from a walk and everything is pretty much back to normal, if a little damp.  The cactus isn't happy:

Sad cactus

And the older trees are cleaned up of mostly dead branches.

We're still under a boil water condition but I expect that to end maybe on Tuesday or so.  We're fortunate.

Our Home Chef box never got here so we'll throw that out when it does.  And next week's box is due tomorrow but I don't believe that will make it since the pipeline will be clogged.  

Not sure what dinner will look like next week as the stores slowly catch up.

All minor issues after last week.  

Now we're back to the normal worrying about masks, distancing, and vaccines.  So weird that living in a pandemic is the normal we're returning to.

Comments

[susandennis]

that cactus is, indeed very sad. what a long long long week. i've always been jealous of your senior real estate tax situation but now that your electric is all fucked up and you own a piece of the fuck up, i'm really ok with out our high taxes :) perspective.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we'll see how it falls. Fortunately (I say now) we've never been eligible for the floating market kind of electricity. Our are has been managed by a coop. In my BNI group we'd have people come and go who were electricity sellers and I never paid much attention since I was in a regulated area. As I kind of understand it the unregulated areas that have gotten, I suppose, a better deal buying electricity off the floating market in the past are now getting slammed and complaining about having to buy electricity off the floating market. They only read the first half of the contract and now are complaining that they were hoodwinked.

This is, I also suppose, why we have regulation in the first place. People do not know enough to be involved in buying open market utilities. There are some people smart enough to hedge the market but pushing this availability down to the homeowner is reckless and now the chickens, as they say, are coming back home.

I think the coop that I'm in has reserves for this. I'm hoping so. I'm hoping that the board we elected had this kind of emergency in mind and were prepared. Somewhere, sometime, there has to be a group of adults in charge who do the right thing. Maybe now?

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

As they say (by law) in the UK on ads for financial investments, "The value of your investment may go down as well as up" - the part nobody wants to hear. We have one power company in Auckland that does floating rates, but I've never been tempted because of the risk factor. I had no idea this model was widespread in Texas. You mostly win, but what happens when you can't afford to lose? As you say, reckless.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the model is run by the sales people. They sell sunshine and mention the downside the required number of times, I'm sure. I feel sorry for the people who really can't afford it. Deregulation sounds so good.

[stainsteelrat.livejournal.com]

So that's what happens to a cactus in the snow! Poor ole cactus.

[gneu.livejournal.com]

I was surprised to see chainsaw crews out around here right after the big snowfalls tearing down what looked to me like perfectly good trees.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

I think these are cutting up the downed limbs of which there are plenty.

[gneu.livejournal.com]

Is this the normal time of year they do this?

I just noticed your wrinkly, prickly pears in the photos. They'll never die off if that's what you're wondering.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, they will create a larger patch. But they do look sad.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

Poor cactus