Sunday, September 4, 2011

100th Post!

Well, I didn't realize that this would be post #100 but I'm too tired to come up with a good title. After seven days and four hours, we finally got our power back around noon today - and running water again. Some snap judgments . . .

As you all well know, I generally despise unions, however in all good conscience I must praise the efforts of the National Grid and out of state and country workers (we had Quebec power crews do my road, eh) who got everyone up and running. (Well, almost; as of the time of this post several dozen homes are still down.)

There were some outlier examples of what most would consider less than desired behavior. The worst one of which I heard was in western Coventry where a crew from Ohio - that by their own accord was just minutes away from bringing a home with an infant and two toddlers back on line - told a tearful single mother as they were driving away that they had hit the eighteen hour union mandated shift cutoff.

I understand the need for the rule from a safety standpoint, and hell, these poor guys have been working mandatory eighteen hour shifts, with just six hours off before they go back out. Still, in this case, perhaps a little compassion was in order. In any event, as I said, the linemen were not a problem.

What was a very apparent problem was the inability of National Grid to cope with the results of a relatively minor (in southeastern New England) tropical storm. The damage from a line/pole problem was significant, but the whole recovery process seemed to be a total custerfluck. Had this been a winter storm that caused this damage, there would have been hundreds of thousands of people left without heat for days, and tens of thousands for a week. In fact it likely would have been longer as cold, snow and ice would have significantly slowed the repair work.

What really pissed me off is that as time progressed and the number of problem areas was reduced, the speed of repair times should have DECREASED, not INCREASED! We were supposed to be up by 10:00 LAST night. The crews from Quebec Power Co. were working on my road until about 7:00 and then left. With so few remaining outages, why was not a second crew ready to take over? Total piss-poor management in my opinion.

In the real world, in a competitive market place, National Grid would pay the price by losing customers to competition, and incompetent managers would pay the price with their jobs. Instead, in the government-regulated monopoly world, customers get screwed twice; first by losing power for so long, and second by paying the price increases that will be coming to cover the cost of all of this - anyone at National Grid ever thing about buying insurance to cover these things in addition to the mandated rainy day fund?

Another source of ire for folks out here is our esteemed governor, Lincoln Chafee. Route 6 between routes 94 and 102 was shut down for over four days, due to a stretch where eight consecutive poles were down (along with their lines). Our understanding is that in these kind of emergency situations, the governor determines where work begins, and in this case, work on the second largest trucking route (after I-95) that feeds the state was delayed by two full days. I'm not saying that the power lines should been repaired there immediately, but the road itself should have been opened to traffic.

Additionally, when the towns of Foster and Scituate asked for a couple of the National Guardsmen that Governor Photo-Op so proudly announced that he had mobilized to relieve the police officers stationed at each end of the Route 6 closure, we were told that the resources "were not available." This forced the towns to pick up the $80/hour tab (one for each side of the closure) for 24/7 coverage for four days. I guess the governor doesn't care much for the districts that overwhelmingly voted against him.

Ultimately, the biggest lesson learned from all of this was one that I already had learned yet failed to remember; when you don't rely on anyone else, you can't be disappointed. I relied on others, and was disappointed. That will not happen again. Generator City and Wood Stove Central - here I come.


Bob, RI

Ceterum , exsisto quietis Iggy!


Monday, May 2, 2011

Roma Victa!

A great day for America. While Al Qaeda never came close to inflicting the kind of damage on America that the Carthaginian army did during its fifteen year rampage through Italy in the second Punic war, Osama Bin Laden is the closest thing to Hannibal Barca that America has ever faced. An evil, seemingly larger than life villain bent on the utter destruction of an enemy he hated as far back as he could remember.

While Barack Obama is no Scipio Africanus, full credit is due to him for maintaining the hunt for public enemy number one and having him taken out. Make no mistake about this folks, this was not dead or alive, it was dead or deader. While that forty man SEAL team (God bless them) may not exactly logistically match the Roman army fielded at the battle of Zama, the result was just as vital. While remnants of his organization remain and need to be dealt with, our greatest enemy has been vanquished.

Just a reminder to our friend Iggy, who spent the 2008 campaign frothing at the mouth supporting his messiah's insistence that Guantanamo had to be shut down and that water boarding must be stopped. The guy that fingered the courier that we followed to Osama was being held in Gitmo, and as I type this, Representative Peter King is on The O'Reilly Factor explaining that it was Khalid Sheik Belushi - I mean Mohammed - who gave up that guy . . . after being water boarded.

Hopefully Iggy now understands what the adults among us have always known. We do not live in a world of rainbows and unicorns. We live in the real world, and such measures are needed to combat the forces of evil that are still gathered at our gates. If not, if he stubbornly clings to the belief that being nice to these savages will spur them to see the light and change their ways, we can always fall back on the great Ron White: "you can't fix stupid."


Bob, RI

Ceterum , exsisto quietis Iggy!


PS - Here's hoping that May Day, socialism's global holiday of the first of May, is forever usurped as Osama Is Dead Day

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Earth Day 2011!!!

Hi everyone, just wanted to wish everyone the greatest of Earth Days. This is how I spent my Earth Day weekend!




Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Happy AlGorehog Day!

Today is the first observation of that very special day where Al Gore sticks his head out of his private jet and if he sees his shadow, we get six more years of him lying to us about global warming.

I just got in, for about the umpteenth time this season, from over two hours of clearing snow. I thought about tracking down Al and punching him in his lying mouth, but I'm too damned tired. Instead, I think I'll bless you all with the top ten things most likely to happen to you while cleaning snow. So without further ado . . .


10) The street plow will re-snow the end of your driveway - after you are completely done cleaning it.

09) Your snow blower will run out of gas at the point where you are farthest away from your gas can.

08) Your bag of ice melt will tear . . .from the bottom . . . while you are carrying it.

07) You will snap a shear pin on the snow blower and not be able to find the three different packs of spares that you know you have.

06) On the way to the hardware store to buy more shear pins, you will be stuck behind some idiot on a one-lane road doing 15 miles under the limit even though the road has been perfectly treated down to bare pavement. 

05) On your return from the hardware store, you'll find that the street plow has re-re-snowed the end of your driveway.

04) As you get out of your car, you will find one of those spare packs of shear pins you had - in your cup holder.

03) After you get inside and warmed up, the weatherman will tell you about the next nor'easter coming in a couple of days.

02) When you switch the channel in anger, you'll be confronted by some left-wing moonbat trying to sell you on the fact that this cold, snowy weather is actually caused by global warming!


. . . and the number one thing most likely to happen to you while cleaning snow . . .

01) The street plow will re-re-re-snow the end of your driveway after you have put away the snow blower and showered!
 

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!

Sorry to have dropped off the radar again. Just wanted to give my best to all, and share some quick thoughts.

Last week, Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell opined that the NFL's canceling of an Eagles game because of concerns over fan safety getting to and leaving the stadium showed that the United States has become a nation of "wusses". Well, thoughts on the appropriateness of commissioner Goodell's decision aside, I find Rendell's statement deliciously ironic.

We have become a nation of wusses, and it is the policies and beliefs of his own Democrat party that have directly caused it. It is the constant bombardment of liberal policies such as not keeping score during sporting events, passing students just for "giving effort", and suspending kids who stand up and fight back against bullies that has created a generation of dependent whiners in constant need of therapy or drugs - or a combination of both - to deal with traumatic events such as going to work every day.

On another note, I got Tom Clancy's latest book - Dead or Alive - for Christmas (that's right, not a "holiday present", a Christmas present) and it was good as usual. It took some serious (and quite valid) shots at Obama, though of course not directly. As is normally the case with Clancy's works, actual sitting politicians and public figures are not directly mentioned. Instead, the target of derision is the fictional President Ed Kealty.

This character, introduced in earlier books and well before Obama even became an Illinois senator, seemed to be a composite of a Bill Clinton, a dash of Al Gore and decent amount of Kennedy arrogance and entitlement. However, the narcissism of Kealty, his horrendous and unconstitutional policies, and most importantly his sycophantic and unqualified cabinet and high-level appointees left absolutely no doubt as to whom Kealty now represents. Good job Tom!