I have a vaccine appointment with the state! It was an aggravating website, you'd pick a time, then they would make you agree to three different things, and then it was back to the appointment time, which was gone at that point. Each and every appointment time, you had to agree to the three things. Finally I got a clue that everybody was marching through the time slots, so I went to the last day, and got one in the morning. Hopefully the doses will still be available by then. It's Moderna, which has a 28 day separation between shots. Pfizer is only 21, which would have been better, but we are where we are and it is what it is. So, now I will quit whining about the appointment process, unless I get cancelled.
This morning I learned something while waiting for the vaccine portal to open. There is an eastern power grid, and western power grid, and there is Texas.
The Texas grid is privately owned, and the feds do not regulate it. They can't share power with the rest of the country, and there is no federal oversight on maintenance and upgrades of the grid. Factors driving the current outages are: frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and nuclear facilities as well as limited supplies of natural gas. The lack of pressure in the gas lines is hampering restoration of power. The wind turbines are currently frozen, but their contribution to the outages is not significant.
Senators Cornyn and Cruz and Representative Crenshaw have been taking shots at California's rolling blackouts. Today they're blaming the Green New Deal (not implemented), AOC and Bernie Sanders for Texas' current problems. These guys just do not know when to get off of Twitter.
More of the taking shots at California.
You can read more about this at Vox, which can be found here.
Today it's cold (relatively speaking) and windy. There does not seem to be much appetite for gearing up and getting out on the bikes. So, I think we will get the shop vac out and vacuum the ceiling fans. Yay!
I'm glad you finally got an appointment. yep Texas. the no regulation fuck safety and maintenance state under the control of the republicans.
ReplyDeleteThat's how I got my appointment with the county, going to the last day, afternoon. I tried to explain this to my sister, but it hasn't registered yet.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize the state of Texas electricity.
Yay! You got a time slot finally! I ran through the picking the spot, answering the questions, losing the slot and on and on also. At any rate, glad you're in the system!
ReplyDeleteIt has been enlightening learning about the Texas power grid. Just another of a zillion reasons I'm so glad I don't live there. A friend of my husband's, who lives in Houston, and is a Democrat, just came back online after three days without power. The first day was his birthday, poor guy.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, Texas officials are unconscionable. And Ted Cruz left his constituents freezing and took his family to Cancun. Honestly if they vote for Abbott, Cruz et al again, they will... well, nobody deserves such cluster fu*kery, but still, I hope they will remember this in 2022.
ReplyDeleteAnd good on you for snagging a vaccine appointment. We did too!
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