Our electric company wants to raise our rates by thirty percent.  Yep, you heard me right, thirty percent.  Now I probably wouldn’t mind quite so much if in the past three or four years we hadn’t had at least one power outage every month or so.  I probably wouldn’t be quite as miffed if the power outages had only been for minutes at a time.  However, these are constant power outages that have lasted from two to over eight hours at a time.

     Can I bill the electric company for my Koi who died when the pond filters and pumps were off for over eight hours?  No.  How about billing them for damage to my electronics, will they replace my computer?  No.

     Maybe they’ll spring for a cup of coffee so I can warm up while I wait for the power to come back on.  What, not even a cheap cup of coffee?

     You don’t even get the pleasure of bitching to a human being.  No, you phone them and an electronic voice directs you through their obstacle course that is worthy of Special Forces training.

     If I’m going to have to pay them thirty percent more I want a human on the other end of the phone so I can at least vent a little.  It’s better to hear a human voice saying, “I feel your pain and I wish I could help….”  I want someone you can yell at about how your dinner was cooking and now that the power has been out for an hour, it is ruined.  Maybe that person would even spring for a hot cup of coffee…