I suppose it's time for me to start thinking about Christmas shopping. Fortunately, I don't have all that much left. I just hope I can keep the costs low. 

    Today's the day the stores will be full of people trying to get deals on things they don't want so that CEOs can have more money they don't need. You can stop climate change, but you can't stop capitalism.

What I'm (not) Thankful For

   Thanksgiving. The time when we give thanks for what we have. We'll I'm not doing that. I just lived through a month where we re-elected Donald Trump and I lost power for a week. I don't even like Thanksgiving food all that much. So here's a list of what I'm not thankful for.

    I'm not thankful for a world in which most of our utilities aren't publicly owned. Seattle got power back three days before we did, and I'm one hundred percent sure that's because the people in charge knew that the public would have their asses if they didn't. We can't do anything about PSE, so we just have to be grateful that our turkey didn't go bad. 

    I'm not thankful for the coupons I keep getting, most of which are for things I don't like, but my brain goes crazy if I try not to use them. Can we just agree that coupons are stupid and start demanding that stores keep their prices reasonable instead?

    I'm not thankful to have to start worrying about Christmas tomorrow. I don't like Christmas. Or Thanksgiving. Both are holidays that celebrate a world that I'm becoming increasingly resentful of. 

    What I am grateful for is the moments when it feels like the world is really beginning to change. I could be delusional, but I they're happening more frequently than they used to, at least in my eyes. I do think the world's getting better, and that we're pulling ourselves out of a toxic headspace. Maybe next year, I'll have something to be thankful for.

     The power's back on, and the only reason that it's on now as opposed to tomorrow is that PSE doesn't want to give us a discount. Just a warning, I'm not listing all of the things that I'm thankful for. This doesn't seem like a good year for it. 

    If I ever move out on my own, my house is going to be completely off of the grid. If I have to go a week without power, I at least want it to be my own fault.

Blackout

 Now is the winter of our discontent

Or so a great bard once said.

 

Cold winds blow 

Trees down 

Upon the houses

Of this doomed street,

Isolated in a city 

That believes itself to be great.

Darkness engulfs the citizens.

Warmth gives way to cold. 

Light becomes a sacred gift

Too precious to be squandered.

We will survive.

Light will return.

They wish us to suffer

In silent.

But we haven't forgotten

The debt that they still owe us.

Someday we'll collect

And then they'll all be sorry. 

    Once upon a time, Puget Sound Energy took out all of the trees along a busy Bellevue street so they could put up more power lines. It would accomplish nothing and no one wanted them, but they put them up any way. It was, they said, to help prevent more blackouts in the future. As I sit in a Starbucks, trying to avoid a cold, dark house that hasn't had power for five days at this point, I'm reminded of those hated powerlines, a monument to man's hubris and stubborness. The people at PSE, who put in those lines, and the people in the Bellevue City Council, who allowed those lines to go in, should remember them as well. We are not one's to forget slights, and I don't think people will be too happy to find firm confirmation that their enegy bills are nothing more than expensive lies. 

   The power's supposed to be on by the time this goes up. If it comes on, I'll post an update.

   I'm hoping the power will be back on by the time that this post goes up, but just in case, have a filler post.

    As of writing this, our house has no power. Everyone else has power, but our street is in total darkness.