A goldfish swimming in misplaced vitriol...

Look, I don't want to be a jerk but--well that's not true, I do kind of want to be a jerk here. Venting is healthy, right? Anyway, my point is PG&E has one job. Well two, the G and E, but basically they're tasked with the very simple duty of keeping us living in the twenty-first century. Or even the twentieth. I'd take twentieth at this point. But I'm closing in on twenty-four hours sans electricity and the power company's response is basically "sucks to be you."

Oh, and my unfocused rage is directed at PG&E management and
not the people out there trying to restore electricity. I want to be very
clear on this point in case on of them actually reads this. 

Above: the time of restoration.

Ok, I'm paraphrasing, the response is that the estimated time of restoration is "To Be Announced." Which is the opposite of helpful. In fact, a deafening silence might almost be preferable. At least that might elicit some sympathy for the people trying to get the power grid back up. "Oh no! Is everyone ok?" or "Wow, they're so busy trying to fix things, nobody's around to update the website." "To Be Announced" just feels like "sorry, we'll let you know." I'd even take a "Tough shit, enjoy the dark ages." Anything but vague promises of updates.

Well, at least Elon can enjoy a brief respite
from being the most hatted thing on Twitter.

The company's Twitter feed is full of seething rage from customers who, like me, have plenty of helpful vitriol to spray in PG&E's general direction. And each rant is met with some variation on "We're sorry to hear you've been with out power. Please visit pge.com/outages for updates." Which is fine, I get that they're only human and that they're trying. But give us something. Lie to me. "To Be Announced" isn't helpful. At all.

It could mean anything and it's explicitly not an estimated time, which is all I'm asking for. Well, that and for the goddamn power to stay on when it rains. I mean, will it be hours? Days? Months? Should I buy a butter churn and stock up on whale oil? 

Above: my weekend.

Basically I'm the goldfish and access
to electricity is the bowl and water. 
It's not great, but there it is.

And again, I know how I sound. Like a week, whiny, man-child who's just upset because he has to charge his Switch at work. Shouldn't I be able to survive without electricity for a few days? Like the pioneers did. Or really everyone before the 1900's or whenever electricity started to be a thing in homes. And sure, I have a roof over my head which is more than many people can say, so why don't I just suck it up? It's a fair question, just not one I'm really feeling like answering honestly while the contents of my fridge are rapidly spoiling.