It’s 12 degrees and I’m in my car, charging my devices and listening to NPR. I thought I’d try and get some work done while I’m out here because there isn’t anything happening in my apartment where I’ve no power or heat. Last night I lay prostrate, wrapped in a thermal sleeping bag and blanket, until I fell asleep to dream my college-dropout dreams. We had power for less than an hour yesterday so I drafted and sent out the Poem Of The Week. It was back off by the time I hit send, so I wrapped myself up and lay down and didn’t get up until after 7 this morning. I’m not 100 on the details but the rolling blackouts needed to protect the grid turned into power outages going on 30 hours now. Without power, we’ve no heat and some of the coldest temperatures ever are expected between now and Saturday in South Central Texas. Going without power at any time is a health risk but the failure to share the wealth, vis-a-vis rolling outages during single-digit temperatures is deadly. I’ve an 1/8 of a tank of gas left and last I checked the whole town is shut down. Yesterday, when I got to the bottom of Castle Hill and through a wet wind, the gas prices at the 7-11 were lit up but the store was dark and locked. Some people were out there, driving, going God-knows-where. Record-breaking temps have shut down the grid. We’re without power the exact moment we need it most. Downtown’s lit up though and some neighborhoods have had zero interruption whatsoever. Little Brother’s gone 30 hours without on the East Side but in Bee Caves folks are only asked to conserve and keep their thermostats at 60. I won’t pretend to know the whole story but I’m drinking tea and writing this in my car in a first-world country. Austin Energy said the rolling blackouts would continue until this afternoon but they haven’t even recognized these are full-blown outages. I tried but I can’t get anything done in my apartment. After wrapping this post I’ll have breakfast and move around the place putting it in order and not stopping long enough for my blood to still and the cold to creep in.
Some weird malfeasance, no doubt, or else graft and negligence that amount to the same thing. You’re poor it’s too bad in this country, which was ok for those of us who thought we weren’t. But the ground has shifted beneath us. It takes a lot more to do what we’ve always done while the pay has stayed the same. It’s an incremental bleeding and all the cut corners and underfunding really show when we need help the most. We’re a calamity away from the poor house, always. This outage is an utter failure of city and state government. You wouldn’t know it listening to Governor Abbott or from the Mayor’s tone in a town hall yesterday. Austin Energy isn’t offering anything either except a flat-out denial and placing the blame squarely on the privately-owned ERCOT. Mayor Adler was urging us to check on our neighbors, completely missing that many of us wouldn’t even be able to watch the town hall without power and further implying that 43% of this City without heat in its coldest temperatures ever is business as usual. More calls for togetherness and unity. Sound familiar? Saturday’s verdict on the Impeachment was crucial, because the way things are going we’re probably going to need a governmental overthrow, just not one led by a grifting ponce and con-artist. Now we’re locked in to the Left. Raising the minimum wage is a start, but it’s time to ease the standard of living, too. $15 an hour will pay your bills, maybe, but that’s all. What about healthcare and the general assumption that being poor is your own damn fault in this country? Clever trick the masters pulled, always having a foil and someone we can look down on instead of realizing we’re not making it here. I told you last month I shared those Crackers on the Capitol’s rage and I can’t see anything but red and class warfare as I’ve been without heat for the last 30 hours. The bloody turns of 2020, the graft and brutality, and the fact we only got $1,600 since this plague began ought to show anybody—the means of production have been used to control our lives. I was always told you needed a job to buy food and clothes but I always knew that work is how they control you. It should be apparent now. Those who don’t see it, well…I don’t know. No getting through there, I suppose. Certainly not making any points with someone from the township about voter fraud when his documentation is a computer printout “from the Whitehouse” or an email with FRAUD in the subject line. Long is this Winter in America. Brr.
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