DoraBora
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Posts posted by DoraBora
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7 hours ago, Scarlett said:
Why is it offensive to say a colored person but not offensive to say 'people of color'?
Why isn't it offensive to call people "white"? I'm not white. I don't know anyone who is. Copy machine paper is white.
I'm also not Caucasian. My ancestors aren't from the Caucasus Mountain area (near the Caspian Sea).
But I'm called Caucasian, or White, non-Hispanic.
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About $9k. We protest it every year. My county's rate is a bit over 2%.
TX doesn't levy state income tax.
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35 minutes ago, TexasProud said:
Maybe I am not so proud of Texas right now. Texas is opening to 100 percent and dropping the mask mandate. Way too early.
Oh no! I meant to watch the governor's address today.
I'm very disappointed.
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My grandmother told me that she had to resign her schoolteaching job during the Depression because her husband had a teaching job, and no one would tolerate a married woman to work if her husband had a job. She said that cash was so hard to come by, as so many banks had failed, that the town operated its businesses using scrip, a form of local currency.
She told the story of sitting at her kitchen table one day, feeding my dad, who was a baby. She looked up to see a tramp standing at the kitchen screen-door. This wasn't unheard of, and she said she was about to get up to give the man some food to take with him, but something made her look at him more closely. It was her brother-in-law! Her husband's brother, who had lost his job in Houston, had been riding the rails, looking for work. He had ended up in their little West Texas town and went to look for his brother. He ended up staying with their family for a year or so until he could figure out what to do next. (I wish I had asked which brother! I met them all at one time or another.)
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Hoosiers. 1950s Indiana High School basketball team - made in 1980s; Best Movie Evah!
I second War Games - it is dated, but it's awesome.
Any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Characters die, but lots of them live.
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1 hour ago, Spryte said:
I forgot to mention that I have my mom’s entire senior apartment sitting in a storage unit. She moved out and moved in with us in a huge hurry, and when I packed it up ... I was afraid to be alone in her apartment, so I literally just threw every in boxes. It’s a mess.
The idea is to have someone move it to our garage to go through it, eventually.
But! Lucky us, we now have the contents of DH’s parents’ senior apartment sitting in boxes in the garage. Gaaaah! So once we sort their stuff, we will get my mom’s.
The fun! It never ends!
When we cleaned out my mom's house to move her to a senior apartment, we found both grandmothers' stuff in the attic.
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1 hour ago, mlktwins said:
I still have some PTSD from having to go through my dad's house.
I'm determined not to leave a mess for my boys though!
These. Exactly.
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2 hours ago, marbel said:
Oh, the boxes of cables!
Ugh, the overflowing rubbermaid container of every cable to every device we've ever owned. Every once in a while, dh can find a cable that can replace one that was lost. 😬 So we keep all of them.
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One good thing about a traditional water heater is that it's a great source of water in an emergency. Most hold around 40 gallons.
It was really nice to have a gas water heater when we had the super cold temps here last week (TX). We could drip hot water through the faucets to keep them from freezing.
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44 minutes ago, Bootsie said:
I don't see how you can draw the concusion that because some are filing for bankruptcy they didn't know the risk. Would you draw the conclusion that any small business owner who files for bankruptcy did know the risk of starting a business? Or, that anyone who has their house destroyed by a hurricane didn't know the risk of living near a coast line? There is a big difference between knowing that there is risk that one is willing to take and not knowing that there is a risk.
I had the impression that the companies that are going out of business are doing so for the usual reasons - too much debt, too few customers, too little cash.
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1 hour ago, RegGuheert said:
While the controversy surrounding Griddy is understandable, I want to point out a trend that I have seen for some time now: Obfuscation of electricity bills.
While I live in an area where I have exactly one choice and no time-of-use metering, I have communicated over the years with solar users from around the country. Some of the plans available are so complicated that it is nearly impossible to determine which plan is best for a given customer. Specifically, I am talking about plans I have seen from PG&E where the solar customer COULD NOT DETERMINE whether he/she was better off with their old plan than with any of the new plans, even with detailed bills from previous months and years from PG&E. You would need a fairly sophisticated calculator to be able to make a valid comparison. And, frankly, I got the impression that obfuscation was EXACTLY the goal of PG&E with those plans.
In the case of Texas, additional complication seems to also come from the fact that there are maybe fifty different providers from which you could choose. Each of those has different plans that could be compared. It is a daunting task, IMO.
So I get that it is not fair that Griddy customers may get relief on high bills, but I also feel that many people may not have understood the risks they were undertaking. In fact, it seems that some of the electricity resellers didn't even know those risks given the comment above that some of them have been filing for bankruptcy. So, is it fair that those companies might get bailed out? It is almost the same question, IMO. (And, no, I am not opposed to bankruptcy, in general. That is another whole discussion altogether.)
You make some great points. Mobile phone plans, banking services, health insurance plans, dining plans at my son's university - all seem to become more complicated each year.
I'm sure these consumers didn't fully understand the ramificiations. If they'd read what happened in August of 2019, they might have looked elsewhere for an electric provider.
I looked at the Griddy app on Google Play a while ago, and among the "This is so unfair" and "You should be ashamed of yourself" reviews, I found this one, written on Tuesday:
Despite the price spikes during the winter storm I still love this company. It wasn't their fault. Also everyone should know what they're getting into. I shut my power off myself and used firewood and didn't have a crazy bill. Be better prepared for natural disasters people.
Keep in mind that the people who are complaining about their astronomical bills were among the fortunate few who had power. I'm not opposed to helping them with some of the expense, I just don't think taxpayers should shoulder the entire burden for them.
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1 hour ago, Jann in TX said:
The people who use Giddy are making a choice they are not forced to use this provider-- in return they have had significantly LOWER electric bills especially in summer when rates/use are typically a the highest. This difference (savings) can be hundreds of dollars less than 'average'...
In the case of last week their advantage of 'good prices' came crashing down as the ugly down side 'potential for high prices' came into play.
I do think/understand the extreme high price was somewhat inflated (not actual cost)... BUT if the Giddy customers get their high bills paid off for them--they should give back/consider the savings from the good times too! Maybe some sort of compromise?
Those of us who took the less risky choice of stable pricing will still have to pay the higher than normal bills due to higher than normal usage...and we WILL see a long term increase in base price because our electric co-ops will need to earn back their losses.
Thank you, Jann. Five minutes of research would have clued these folks into the risks of using this type of electric provider. This recent trouble was more extreme than past Griddy price spikes, but the warnings were there.
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1 hour ago, Dreamergal said:
Texas woman who received $9,300 electricity bill files class-action lawsuit against wholesale electricity provider Griddy
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/23/texas-electric-bill-griddy/
I haven't seen any other company name tied to the crazy-high bills.
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You may have already seen this one.
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2 minutes ago, chiguirre said:
In the Houston burbs, I've been doing field research on just this topic. Yesterday, my Walmart pickup was awful. 6 random substitutions (really, head scratchers) and 8 items eliminated including the milk and buns I desperately needed. They let me cancel, though, so I didn't pick up the few things I would have wanted.
Then, in desperation, I girded myself to visit every grocery store in my town. Luckily the first store I visited, a tiny, old fashioned Kroger had water, milk, produce, deli meats and eggs. The only thing they were out of was buns. Their freezers were bare because they lost power and had to throw away all their stock.
Today, I stopped at a big Kroger Marketplace and got eggs and buns. They had at least some of every category although their shelves were half empty and they limited customers to one each of bread, milk, eggs and water.
I've got everything I need for the week! What a relief!
I was glad to see that after the storm last week (TX), two of my stores were limiting these items. They seem to have learned from last year's Covid panic.
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2 hours ago, OH_Homeschooler said:
My Aldi was great yesterday. I noticed that Aldi in particular can run low on items during certain times of the week in general, so maybe you went at a bad time?
I read somewhere that Aldi restocks produce on Wednesdays. Maybe that's also their general restock day.
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9 minutes ago, Calizzy said:
Our piano teacher’s daughter is getting married. I don’t know her, but I think my piano teacher is a wonderfully sweet lady and would like to acknowledge this wedding somehow. We’re not invited to the wedding, is it weird to give a card with a bit of money? Is it normal to give a gift to a wedding you weren’t invited to? I don’t want to look passive aggressive.
I think a card with a bit of money would be a sweet gift!
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An email from my power company this morning:
As Texas recovers from the recent winter weather emergency, here’s how you can count on us.
Insulating your Rate
You may have heard about sky-high variable rates in the news, but rest assured that as a TXU Energy customer, you won’t see any near-term impact to your rate due to this winter weather event. Whether you’re on a fixed or variable pricing plan, our customers are always insulated from extreme variable wholesale power price swings like the recent ones.
Payment Flexibility
Like many Texans, you may be experiencing higher usage due to the historic low temperatures. Please call us anytime if you need more time to pay or would like to set up a longer-term payment plan.
Peace of Mind about Usage
If you're seeing usage on days your home didn't have power, it’ll be corrected soon. The information you may see online is due to estimated usage because your utility provider wasn’t able read your meter during the power outage. As soon as we receive refreshed data, it’ll be corrected.
Here for You 24/7
Last week was tough, but we’re here to assist you in any way we can. Please call us anytime at 800-818-6132 or (click here) for more information.-
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6 hours ago, Corraleno said:
Maybe she's referring to Rep. Michael McCaul's statement that federal disaster funds will be used to pay some of the exorbitant electric bills. Many politicians are saying that consumers shouldn't have to pay the bills, but I haven't seen anyone suggesting that the energy companies should have to eat the cost. So if they use federal funds to pay the outrageous bills, then the energy companies whose bad policies and lack of planning caused the disaster to begin with get what they want with no penalty or consequences for their actions.
Ah, I see... I wouldn't call one Congressman making such a statement "asking for big handouts", but okay. Amy and I look at things differently. (The secession and lawsuit statements got under my skin. I'm sorry, @Amy in NH.)
Don't the feds have rules about how disaster money can be spent?
The original story here was about outrage over customers being billed crazy high amounts for electricity. It's a dramatic story, but is it widespread? Who has been billed thousands of dollars, apart from Griddy customers? We haven't had enough time to learn how many people we're talking about.
I don't know how my own electric bill will change, but I expect it to be higher because our usage was up last week. It looks like it will be down this coming week. When I use more power, I pay more. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
In related news: The Public Utilities Commission has instituted a temporary moratorium prohibiting power companies from disconnecting service or sending out invoices while the state tries to sort this out this thing.
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2 minutes ago, Amy in NH said:
How is it untrue? Do you see other states with bills to secede?
Probably not (though I'm not looking for them) but one state rep. sponsoring a bill doesn't mean our whole state is trying to leave the Union. He is just one guy. My state rep and senator wouldn't vote in favor of that. It's silly. We're Americans.
Well, if you do find the info about us suing the other 49 states (Are we suing your state? What ever for?), I'd be interested.
Also, I'd love to see info on someone who has already, today, just days after we "tried to secede", asked for big handouts to bail out our unregulated utility owners.
If I sound snarky, I honestly don't mean it that way. I just can't find this news.
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2 minutes ago, Amy in NH said:
I did not say the lawsuit was to secede...
I stand corrected. You did say we tried to secede from the Union, which is untrue.
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2 minutes ago, Amy in NH said:
Um, this isn't a lawsuit. It's a bill that has been introduced (by one of our more... colorful... legislators), but it hasn't been passed. It may not even make it to the floor for a vote.
Quote: "The bill is unlikely to pass and has already been rebuked by fellow Republicans, including State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Dallas."
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Racism questions
in The Chat Board
Posted
Not personally. Of course not. I still find being called "white" ridiculous.