Fluttering Leaves

The tiny goldfinches looked like falling leaves as they visited the feeder this morning. The real leaves, were skittering across the road in front of my car as I headed out this morning to fill it with gas and get some ground coffee that isn't decaf. Wind always makes me a bit uneasy, but that feeling is complicated by the fact that it is  now inexorably linked to downed trees, broken transmission lines, fire and incompetence.  

WARNING: If you're not in the mood for a rant, please don't read any further....

I've been trying to restrain myself from ranting, since there isn't much we can do about this situation, but for that very reason my frustration and anxiety levels are growing exponentially with each uninformative message from PG&E which says only that they may  turn off power in our area during high winds and dry conditions. I have come to assume that if we're getting the message, they're turning our power off, but who knows when or for how long. We'll get another message about 12 hours after the lights come on again telling us the power has been restored. These messages became so distracting and uninformative that I tried to turn them off, but they're still coming often in the middle of the night, or after the fact. 

I've always been reasonably good at taking things in stride, but this is happening just too often (this will be the sixth time in two months) and seems just too blunt and with too many repercussions to evoke either reassurance or comfort. After all, the latest fire, the biggest in California history, was started after the power was turned off ...except to the one line that malfunctioned and started a fire. PTSD is setting in all over the county.

The head of the Pacific gas and Electric Corp. told angry California lawmakers Monday that the nation's largest electric utility wasn't fully prepared prepared for the effects of its unprecedented  power outages last month even as it plans to shut off power to more than half a million people again this week to prevent wildfires.*

'We weren't as prepared as we thought and we needed to give a little more attention...a lot more attention...to impacts after we shut the power off', said Bill Johnson, PG&E CEO, appearing before a Senate oversight committee hearing.*

In the meantime, we are again filling the bathtub with water, charging up our solar powered camping lights and back-up phone chargers in readiness for another long, dark night punctuated by warnings and alerts. The roof is finished and  the electrician is coming to install the inverter and hook up the solar panels, but I doubt if  he'll be able to do it if the power is off. Once that is done, guess who has 30 days to approve the paperwork (or something) before they can start generating power.... Got it in one...PG&E.

The Oct. 9 shutoff was a big 'screw you' to your customers. That has created among the Legislature and among your customers a real trust issue''*
 -State Senator Bill Dodd to PG&E CEO Don Johnson  

Many people are taking things into their own hands, installing generators themselves, often improperly, making them an accident waiting to happen. Electricians are charging exorbitant prices for doing the job properly, assuming a generator can even be found anywhere in California.

John keeps saying we have a year to figure this out, to which I respond, no we don't. They won't declare an end to fire season until we have gotten two inches of rain...rain which isn't even on the horizon. We will probably install some TESLA batteries after PG&E approves the solar panel installation and use them to run important things like the well pump and the fridge. The batteries are expensive too but at least they might one day allow us to get off the PG$E Grid altogether....

We do not expect an annual repeat of what we went through this October. That just cannot happen again. *
-Don Johnson

* excerpts from an associated press report by Adam Beam.