Weather Report

Whoever wrote that song about it not raining in Southern California must have been smoking the wacky-weed. During the fall, winter and spring, it will rain here three or four times per month. But, with the power companies, every year it’s the same. Around September or October when the first few raindrops fall in Southern California, it’s as if there’s been a proverbial seven-year drought. No I’m not referring to the usual spate of vehicular accidents that come with the change of weather, but the electrical grid: brown-outs everywhere, including here in the hood.

I went to bed early last night and was awakened by the *lack* of noise. (I like to sleep with the TV or the radio playing.) I groped for the remote to click on the TV. Nothing. All that could be heard were the heavy raindrops falling outside my window—a pleasant sound, but not enough to lull me back to sleep. So I grabbed a flashlight and my reading glasses—each kept in a handy place—found an old electric bill and made a call to LADWP. Four hours and not a lick of sleep later, the electricity was back on.

I got up, got ready and went to church. On my way there, I found that other neighborhoods were not as fortunate as mine. Traffic signals were out all over the place (and, annoyingly enough, many motorists are unfamiliar with the generally-accepted protocol under such circumstances).

Later, when I came home, I found out that there had been another four-hour brown-out in this neighborhood.

It was the same last year, the year before and as far back as 1994—the year I exited active duty and came home to LA.

It’s not as though there have been hurricanes or big-honkin’ earthquakes around here. It’s just a little rain. Is it too much to ask that the power companies do a little rain-proofing maintenance on their equipment every now and then? I know for a fact that they have plenty of money for it; at least, they have plenty of mine.

Okay, yes, we’re very blessed to live in a country that has regular, affordable and—mostly—reliable power. I just felt that you might enjoy a little whining ranting. It keeps the skills up. ;-)

UPDATE: Duly chastened.

Comments

[Rob de Santos]

As I look at my keychain with the LADWP phone number on it, I can tell nothing has changed since I left SoCal in '94.

[R. Alazar]

Well, yes, obviously, it is too much to ask them to spend money on maintenance that they will not be allowed to recover--or, if they recover it, to keep the recovery.

If you thing generating power under California laws pays (ha-ha-ha), then *you* invest in it.

[Silicon Valley Jim]

When I lived in Chicago in a neighborhood with hardly any buildings constructed since World War I, with snow and temperatures frequently below zero, I never lost electric power. Here in Silicon Valley, where the temperatures get down to freezing once every five years or so, in a neighborhood where hardly any buildings were constructed before 1975, I lose power a couple of times per year. It's not how hard it is to keep power up the makes the difference; it's how much you care about it.

[Old Patriot]

We just had newspaper headlines that our utility bill is going to go up $30-$40 a month "on average", which means it'll be closer to $60. Why? Because "demand has increased so dramatically". Yeah, we've grown - from about 250,000 when I moved here 15 years ago to about 450,000 now, but that growth was gradual. Why were there no plans to increase productivity during all that time? Five years ago, they told us that we couldn't reap the benefits of cheap natural gas, because the city had signed a ten-year agreement at a fixed price. Now, when natural gas has tripled in price, they can suddenly break the agreement and UP the price.

There are already about 700 lawsuits pending against the city-owned utilities company, and I'm sure that number will increase. The only hope of changing anything, however, is to dump the current city council, get some people in office that understand something about business, and start firing the over-priced people that run our utilities companies. Would you believe our Utilities director makes more than the President of the United States? About $45,000 a year more... Keep your resumes sharp - there may be a vacancy soon. Just ignore the bodies hanging from the lamp-posts.

[Aaron's Rantblog]

For 6 consecutive Wednesday afternoons when I was 16.5 and living in NJ, it rained during my behind-the-wheel driving instruction.

I move to LA in 1985. I am convinced that Los Angelenos operate on solar batteries as driving ability dips drastically whenever the sun is obscured.

Someone in the DWP is making stoopid profits. Operating utilities in SoCal for anything but earthquakes should be as easy as Steve Martin's job as a weatherman in LA Story.

What is getting noticibly worse in LA is the increase in "third world" driving behavior. LA used to be a joke because people actually slowed if there was a hint of a pedestrian at a crosswalk and people got tickets for jaywalking. Now it is increasingly a zero-sum game (look up "game theory") and my observation is that the more expensive the car, the worse the driver... the mental calculus is that if they drive a Lexus and you drive a Chevy, their lawyer can beat yours and they are exempt from courtesies like using their turn signals. (Do they remove these in the BMW and MBZ dealerships?)

But I do love weather and kinda wish we had about 2 weeks of snow, just for variety.

[Aaron's Rantblog]

Old Patriot... if you can figure out a way to get rid of Zev and Yvonne, sign me up (I'm serious). They have more power than most state governors and seem to be more secure in their jobs than Supreme Court justices.

Yvonne Burke is my councildespot and her arrogance during the LA County Seal brouhaha is disgusting. How she can go to church and find supporters stuns me. Zev's backers I understand because they are predominantly secular/cultural Jews whose solution to antisemitism is nearly identical to the antisemites... eliminating Judaism (the antisemitic solution is eliminating Jews).

[DagneyT]

You have to love those environmental nutcases in CA who have been preventing infrastructure upgrades and refinery builds for 20-30 years! Recommended reading; "The Skeptical Environmentalist, Measuring the Real State of the World, written by Bjorn Lomborg, as professor of statistics and former member of Greenpeace. Fascinating! He started out trying to disprove another author's premise, and ended up proving it! The other author was Julian Simon, from the University of Maryland.

[girl]

a $60 utility bill? can I have one of those? here in good old Houston, our electric bills have been around $140 every month. the A/C runs non-stop b/c it can hardly keep up with the heat outside. there were times during the summer that the A/C never cut off b/c we had to put the theromstat around 15-20 degrees cooler than we actually wanted the temp in our apartment to be in order to get it to that temp. I'm so ready for summer to be over!

[Silicon Valley Jim]

"a $60 utility bill? can I have one of those?"

Well, it happens that I just paid my Pacific Gas & Electric bill -$18.16 for a month, for a 1,320 square foot condominium. No air conditioner. In an average year, there are about two days that I wish I had an air conditioner.

On the other hand, I'm in constant danger of being Californicated.

[girl]

if I could afford the cost of living out there, I'd move in a second. I'm completely jealous of people that have mild weather year round.

[Desert Cat]

Don't the words go something like "It never rains in California...but man it pours!"

RE: The Photo

"Bringing the suburban experience to the rest of the world."

[prasad]

i want a report on weather,for previous 10
years back at new delhi,india.please send me the detailed report on weather .