Power Outage

    10 August 2026

        Let me begin with an Eternal Shriek.

        (pause for shriek)

        My pay was deposited from the district on Friday. I wish to thank them for the deposit, as in May of 2025, nobody in the district received their pay deposits. It was fixed by noon, but made a giant mess.

        However, I wish to log a complaint with management over my alleged 'Cost of Living' bump. For those who do not teach, lemme 'splain. We get one pay raise a year. No bonuses, we do not get tipped, nothing. Here is your pay for the year, the same every month. 

         As you may not teach but you pay attention, you know teachers are grotesquely underpaid. In some states, it could be called "criminally" underpaid. In Colorado we're "mid". I will break it down later. For now, that's all the informaiton that is relevent.

        We had to switch our insurance this year, as the costs are astronomical. Originally they struck Kaiser as a choice saying it was "too expensive". I've had Kaiser for 15 years, I'm 60 and I've been through the insurance company games of "Choose a primary care Doctor"-"Just kidding, nobody's taking new patients". So I reached out ot he school board and made noise, learned I wasn't the only one, and we kept Kaiser.

        I stayed with my plan, which increased  to $1200 a year. No dental, no vision, just baseline.

        My cost of liviing raise is $1000 a year.

        I imploded.

        I have no idea how I am going to work a weekend job to make up the difference.

        Then I exploded

         I posted on FB, and acquaintances pointed out their own issues: one works in healthcare and has no healthcare insurance.

        It wasn't a post to an invite to a pissing contest, but what isn't any more?

        And they're not wrong. But damn, ever since COVID the mantra has been "At least you have a job, shut up, peasant". 

        So I got that going for me.

        But wait! There's more!

        Last week, my mom -who lives about two miles east of us in Lakewood-lost her power for seven hours at one stretch. No warning, no text stating "Heads Up, We're Doing Rolling Blackouts!", nothing. Just went out. She had to call to get an estimated time for her power to return. She's 81. Cool.

        On Saturday, we returned from lunch and couldn't get the garage door open. Because the power was out. No warning, no text, nada. We came in the front door, texted our neighbors and then the power came back for a second, then went out for two hours.

        On Sunday...guess what went out without warning? For an hour this time. 

        This time, it was only on our side of the street. It's always our side of the street. I have no idea why, up here our power lines are buried, but I'm not an electrician.

        Our neighbor across the street has a generator from Costco--I think it's in their backyard. I can hear it but it's not ridiculous. Our next door neighbor also has one, it's clearly in his garage and it's crazy loud. Even with our windows closed we can hear it.

        We talked about getting one when we had rolling blackouts due to the high winds this spring, but they're expensive. But we know which brand to look at, and when we win the lottery we'll get one.

        I hate all monopolies, but I will give AT&T their propers---they refunded customers for a sun SPLOT. We weren't even effected, but hey, we got a few bucks off our bill.

        Xcel, however, rolls blackouts and cuts power and increases the charge.

        I Hate It Here.