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20 hours ago, Bevo said:

There's a fault line that runs through The Woodlands. I don't know what kind of problems that would cause with buried cables.

It's a pretty minor set of faults that are most likely due to sucking down the water table that shouldn't affect the wiring/cables. But you also wouldn't want your house or pool built on it... (Ha Ha Gordy Bunch! https://www.jw.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Woodlands-Fault-Line-Lawsuit-Dismissed.pdf)

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  • I was supposed to fly to Tampa today for the week but decided to say fuck that and went to our Vegas office. Got a bitch ass email from my director in Denver who is a trumper telling me I didn’t get a

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We got a small break in the weather today. Mid 80s for much of the day. It’s nice to be able to open the windows and get some fresh air in the house and not just blastfurnace heat. 

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Thermostat is back online I have power!

We received a text that said we should have power by Tuesday. There isn’t a single truck anywhere near me. They got things along the main road near my house working and then just took off. That stupid map showed that our “assessment” was complete so I’m not sure why there is another 5 days expected before it’s restored. I can only assume that CP doesn’t have the equipment necessary for the repair in my area? 
 

long story longer, fuck Centerpoint!

Still no power in my area, whatever. I've traded Copperfield for Sugar Land. 

#TeamBloominOnion

I was fortunate to get my power back yesterday around 2:30 pm.  A ton of homes around me still have no power.  Tanglewood is hit or miss and the Memorial Villages are mostly a disaster.  When you drive around it’s really not hard to see the problem.  There are tall and massive trees growing mere feet from power lines.  It’s like that all around Houston.  Either bury the lines (costly) or CP should do a massive tree trimming/chopping down effort.  Many homeowners will bitch and moan but screw them.  Many of the problematic trees should never have been planted—and most were planted—Houston was a prairie.  The coordination effort likely sucks too, but let’s fix the underlying problem.  

I agree with most, if not 99% of everything you said, except for the part about Houston and prairie. To be more precise, it’s a swamp, full stop.
44 minutes ago, Grimas said:

It's a pretty minor set of faults that are most likely due to sucking down the water table that shouldn't affect the wiring/cables. But you also wouldn't want your house or pool built on it... (Ha Ha Gordy Bunch! https://www.jw.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Woodlands-Fault-Line-Lawsuit-Dismissed.pdf)

Did you have to google or did you know about it? I had a patient who was a geologist who told me about it. Is it widely known?

CP needs to spend a lot more money on tree trimming in their easements and cease installing fragile wooden poles and only use sturdier composite ones going forward.

CP is in bed with private equity, go look it up. We are a calculated number in some MBAs spread sheet.

And we will still depend on them tomorrow! We know it, they know it.
Can they be danced and twerked on? 

Wait till the monkey bites someone?

Where is the Doctor of Neighborhood anyway, we gonna need him.
30 minutes ago, Covri said:

Where y’all at ?

Hell…as far north in Harris County as you can go. 

25 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Did you have to google or did you know about it? I had a patient who was a geologist who told me about it. Is it widely known?

I had to Google it when I saw the comment as I hadn't heard of any faults in the Woodlands even though I've lived here 11 years and have never noticed the faulting on the roads here like you get down in Spring Branch.  (And I'm a geologist...)

As a side note, my structural geology professor at UT - who later became the head of the Geology Department - and her geologist husband bought a house in Austin that they didn't know was on a major fault line that caused a bunch of damage to it...

55 minutes ago, General Specific said:


I agree with most, if not 99% of everything you said, except for the part about Houston and prairie. To be more precise, it’s a swamp, full stop.

Some parts were a swamp.   But most of it was a prairie.  

Power was restored on Tuesday afternoon only to be lost again today.

Frustrated Parks And Recreation GIF

Some parts were a swamp.   But most of it was a prairie.  

Laura Ingalls doesn’t live here. And after 1900, at least it wasn’t Galveston. Right!
12 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Some parts were a swamp.   But most of it was a prairie.  

Well, we’ve got a prairie.  And a swamp.  Swamp might be better for you.

-oh yeah, natural springs.  I’ll take anything.  Go ahead and play through, I’m just gonna clean up this disaster.  

6 hours ago, HouTex said:

  Many of the problematic trees should never have been planted—and most were planted—Houston was a prairie.  The coordination effort likely sucks too, but let’s fix the underlying problem.  

 

36 minutes ago, General Specific said:


I agree with most, if not 99% of everything you said, except for the part about Houston and prairie. To be more precise, it’s a swamp, full stop.

The Houston area was a combination of a rain forest and a swamp.  The Big Thicket 

People channelled the water to the bayous, useable land grew out of the drained swamps, the trees were clear cut and used, the flat land was farmed, people came, development increased, air conditioning became affordable, liquor by the drink was passed, Arab oil embargo, tons of people came, development exploded (no zoning), the "prairie" was developed, trees were planted for the homes and concrete was poured for the businesses.

Yes, Houston was a prairie and trees were planted, but it wasn't always like that.

44 minutes ago, Grimas said:

I had to Google it when I saw the comment as I hadn't heard of any faults in the Woodlands even though I've lived here 11 years and have never noticed the faulting on the roads here like you get down in Spring Branch.  (And I'm a geologist...)

As a side note, my structural geology professor at UT - who later became the head of the Geology Department - and her geologist husband bought a house in Austin that they didn't know was on a major fault line that caused a bunch of damage to it...

I'm guessing you didn't know that Pilot Knob is an extinct volcano, ~ 10 miles southeast of Austin, near McKinney Falls.

10 minutes ago, PTINS said:

I'm guessing you didn't know that Pilot Knob is an extinct volcano, ~ 10 miles southeast of Austin, near McKinney Falls.

Yea. I knew that one...

Anybody have a rundown on the history of deregulation in Texas and a synopsis of why Centerpoint is nearly untouchable? 
 

I was discussing it with an attorney today and he said CP was state sanctioned and the only way to make them go away is a giant grassroots movement of people shorting their stock. 

The fuck you looks from the pups when there was no AC were enough to put me over the edge. I’ll go stay with Frank and Estelle Costanza in Lakeway when the next storm hits. 

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lulz

83uae.thumb.jpg.a56076031a937535571c208fcbf3b12c.jpg

 

20 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Anybody have a rundown on the history of deregulation in Texas and a synopsis of why Centerpoint is nearly untouchable? 
 

I was discussing it with an attorney today and he said CP was state sanctioned and the only way to make them go away is a giant grassroots movement of people shorting their stock. 

Before deregulation, Centerpoint, then known as Houston Power & Light, was a generator, transmission/distribution and retail electric provider.  It was a public utility.  Oncor, formerly Dallas Power & Light was the same.

As public utilities, they were granted a statutory monopoly on their services in their service area.  Both CP and Oncor have been publicly traded and privately owned at various points prior to deregulation.  That is somewhat anathema to the concept of a public utility.

At deregulation, generation, transmission/distribution, and retail electric providers were separated.  Oncor and Centerpoint maintained their monopolies, however.  I'm not sure if it's still a statutory monopoly or just a practical one, as they own all the power lines and ain't no one gonna challenge them in that.

So, they are privately owned** public utilities with a de jure or de facto monopoly and they therefore pretty much suck for everyone except their owners.

**NB when I say "privately owned," I mean including publicly traded, which is just a form of private ownership.  Which is to be distinguished by owned by a public entity, as in Austin Energy.  Private or public, they all have problems, but at least the real public utilities are ultimately answerable to the public.

Edited by TwiceHorn

19 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Austin energy is owned, at least in a public sense, so we can vote for shit.   

That’s insane to me. So much shareholder value just being left on the table like that. 

Welcome to Austin, brother, where you send billions in property taxes to other entities, and can’t even fix broke shit here.  

45 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

At deregulation, generation, transmission/distribution, and retail electric providers were separated.  Oncor and Centerpoint maintained their monopolies, however.  I'm not sure if it's still a statutory monopoly or just a practical one, as they own all the power lines and ain't no one gonna challenge them in that.

image.png.507cfea9c7acd0159b937368e55df3f5.png

Years ago, as a consultant for a city owned public utility, I was asked to attend a city council meeting as an SME on a particular topic. We never had a chance to address the topic because the city council only wanted to discuss not raising electricity rates.

The city council was expressing the concerns of the citizens having to pay more so they wanted to make it clear that prices should not go up.

Can you imagine the board of a publicly traded utility doing that?

Oncor and the power to choose website has been better for utilities than when I lived in Austin for cost wise. I did laugh when they fucked up our auto draft and cut our service remotely the same day we got back from vacation and we had to stay in a hotel the night we got home. They cut it off that day at 5pm remote but said they couldn’t turn it back on until 8am the next day due to their policy. Even after admitting they were wrong. Shouldn’t need a hotel in Texas in November with no power but it was unseasonably warm shocker.

1 hour ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Austin energy is owned, at least in a public sense, so we can vote for shit.   

What can you vote for? 

42 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Welcome to Austin, brother, where you send billions in property taxes to other entities, and can’t even fix broke shit here.  

The only dollars that get sent away are by AISD through "robbing" hood.

7 minutes ago, landman said:

What can you vote for? 

The only dollars that get sent away are by AISD through "robbing" hood.

I suspect that you are trying to talk to a dumb dumb.

28 minutes ago, F250 said:

I suspect that you are trying to talk to a dumb dumb.

Do not assume other people are not bright.

They will shoot you in the ass..

2 minutes ago, TOR said:

Do not assume other people are not bright.

They will shoot you in the ass..

I assume you are a dumb cock sucker that wants semen shot in your ass.

Nsiap:

Quote

Entergy spent $32.1 million dollars in vegetation maintenance, or $62.76 per customer.
Texas New Mexico Power spent $8.1 million or $30.40 per customer.
CenterPoint spent $46.5 million, or $16.84 per customer.
AEP Texas spent $11.4 million, or $10.34 per customer.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/investigations/centerpoint-tree-maintenance/285-1cab4152-cb85-4de4-a1e2-ad7ab8ef978f

29 minutes ago, F250 said:

I assume you are a dumb cock sucker that wants semen shot in your ass.

Indeed.

12 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


There will be 1) huge campaign contributions from CP, 2) large bonuses for its execs, 3) massive rate increases for the customers to pay for “improvements” which 4) will not ever actually happen. Y’all know this routine.


Texas lege members will get a hell of a trip / vacation and learn. Gives CP a chance to highlight all the new and shiny improvements. The booze and booty will be flowing.

all expenses passed along to the customer 

Feels damn good to have my wifi back !!

I’m somewhat shocked the epidemic of hot step moms getting stuck in appliances is as rampant as ever !!!

4 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Feels damn good to have my wifi back !!

I’m somewhat shocked the epidemic of hot step moms getting stuck in appliances is as rampant as ever !!!

You will only waste it betting on the Astros.  

 

2 minutes ago, TOR said:

You will only waste it betting on the Astros.  

 

Shooting Easy Money GIF by iHeartRadio San Francisco

3 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

Feels damn good to have my wifi back !!

I’m somewhat shocked the epidemic of hot step moms getting stuck in appliances is as rampant as ever !!!

You shouldn't be watching that in Texas. I've reported you to the authorities. 

7 hours ago, F250 said:

I suspect that you are trying to talk to a dumb dumb.

I’m more of an angry dumb, but point taken.  

Day 5 of no power. Thankfully, the roof is getting repaired right now. Hopefully we get some good rain today to keep the temps down.

14 hours ago, Js1 said:

HEB in the heights had tons of water. Everything was in stock, except weirdly dog food.

 

10a460db-9c38-411c-9070-390644a65a5b_tex

10 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Before deregulation, Centerpoint, then known as Houston Power & Light, was a generator, transmission/distribution and retail electric provider.  It was a public utility.  Oncor, formerly Dallas Power & Light was the same.

As public utilities, they were granted a statutory monopoly on their services in their service area.  Both CP and Oncor have been publicly traded and privately owned at various points prior to deregulation.  That is somewhat anathema to the concept of a public utility.

At deregulation, generation, transmission/distribution, and retail electric providers were separated.  Oncor and Centerpoint maintained their monopolies, however.  I'm not sure if it's still a statutory monopoly or just a practical one, as they own all the power lines and ain't no one gonna challenge them in that.

So, they are privately owned** public utilities with a de jure or de facto monopoly and they therefore pretty much suck for everyone except their owners.

**NB when I say "privately owned," I mean including publicly traded, which is just a form of private ownership.  Which is to be distinguished by owned by a public entity, as in Austin Energy.  Private or public, they all have problems, but at least the real public utilities are ultimately answerable to the public.

Public owned - at least you can “vote them away” lol that always works

Private owned - at least you can fire them and go elsewhere…

Private owned with a state sanctioned monopoly - you are just fucked

I understand the state plays a role somewhere but big companies just manipulate a bunch of corrupt dumb fucks and do what they want with state power. Same old story as many of the big $ industries. 

11 hours ago, hornmpa96 said:

Power was restored on Tuesday afternoon only to be lost again today.

Frustrated Parks And Recreation GIF

Yep, my parents who live on the Harris county side of the woodlands got their power back Wednesday evening and lost it on Thursday evening. I get the feeling that the linemen are doing a rush job with their restorations and as a result, many of their fixes are failing a day or two later. 

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