Doohicksie

I'm still gathering evidence and will modify my hypothesis accordingly.

Mainline it!

Oh, the Buffalo has a name now? "Randy Bovine"

I follow him on Twitter. I see what he tweets. He's a dog lover with a shelter pet. He's a devoted husband and supported his wife through cancer treatment. He likes rock and roll. I've DMed him on Twitter a few times and he always provided prompt answers.

This was me last season.

Whatever floats your boat.

We didn't get a yellow arrow this season. Straight to green.

Tell me you've reached middle age without saying you've reached middle age.

I gave him a fair shot, but the longer I listen to him, the more I pick up on little things he does that annoy me.

Incorrect. There are a lot of choices for energy consumers in Texas. There is one Grid Operator (ERCOT, a public/private entity) and one electricity delivery system (ONCOR), but consumers buy electricity in Texas from any of a number of energy retailers. The largest is probably TXU Energy. Each retailer is just a go between between ONCOR and the consumer and each has its own billing structure. There was one company, Griddy, that basically charged consumers a monthly flat fee and then charged consumers whatever the instantaneous wholesale rate was. As such, there was no margin to mitigate the spikes and consumers simply couldn't afford $9,000/kW-hr, so the company went bankrupt. Under normal conditions Griddy was the best deal for consumers, but when the grid crashed and prices spiked the company had no way to mitigate that. They saw what was coming and begged their customers to switch, but the way the companies work you can't switch instantly Griddy was screwed. But that was only like 0.01% of customers in the state or something like that. My company "overcharged" me enough that when things crashed they were able to eat the overages. And we never lost power. (My friend who lives a mile away lost power for 4 days in subzero temps. His wife feeds a bunch of feral cats, so when cold snap hit they let the cats stay on their enclosed porch. They stayed in their house. Luckily they're avid campers and had good cold weather gear. The set up a tent in their living room and slept in it. I think it got down to about 30 degrees in their house.)

Sounds about right.

Yeah, but they're from Harbor Freight.

Mighty Waddlers

But they should back each other up. That's the problem with the Texas grid: It's isolated, so when we did have problems in 2021 there was no fall back.

I forgot what the issue even was, but one thing I remember is you were oh so wrong. 😉

On the D side, Ras and Muel together. Eh. But look who's on the second pairing? Lil J along with Power. They may mesh well. And on the third line... Is Joki still "sore" or "sick" or is he on the verge of losing his spot to Bryson? Bryson's only played 3 NHL games this year but as I recall the Sabres won all three of those games. Coming out of camp he looked like he had more jam than in past years. Maybe he's finally NHL worthy?

You don't really understand Buffalo sports at all, do you? 😉

Visions of Cream of Umberger. If it brings the needed changes I'm all in favor of it.

I've decided two things about Dan Dunleavey: He's a heck of a nice guy. Just a quality guy all around. He's also part of the reason I dislike watching Sabres games these days.

Then sell the Sabres to Bon Jovi and let him move them. You're right: Powderpuff Samson is having a career year with them.

I know we've chafed recently, and just know it kind of upset me a little. You're a good guy. Oh come on, @Shoot da Puck... you know we luv ya.

He responds to my posts too. That's not always good. 👀

You mean "not tied" but yeah. There are three grids in the U.S.: East, West and Texas. The multi-thousand-dollar electric bills came from people who chose providers who priced electricity directly based on the wholesale rate. When there wasn't enough electricity to feed the grid, the prices briefly went to infinity (effectively). I still don't totally trust the grid, but they have tried to make it more robust. Our utilities are still hung from utility poles; I think that's probably the weak link in the chain at this point. (Newer neighborhoods have buried utilities, but our neighborhood was built in the 1950s.)