I'd almost be willing to take up drinking JUST so I could ban Molson's from the house. That's how mad I am. I'm verging on questioning my near half-century of loyalty to the Montreal Canadiens. That's how mad I am. I wonder if somebody will go all right wingnut crazy on the decision-makers and wonder if I would feel any sympathy ... for the crazy. That's how mad I am. But being mad only leads me here to vent. At least I let the doubly-cursed dummies know there are better ways to keep we, the people, better informed. So I posted this comment to their site for collecting such comments:
While it would be easy to launch into an invective-filled rant about the idiocy of an operation that will result in the loss of electricity in the dead of winter for thousands, if not millions of people ... without any recompense, to do so would be the electronic equivalent of spitting into the wind. My main problem all along has been the fact that Hydro One and the Movement team have operated under the delusion that they are keeping the victims of this move updated information-wise.
In fact, the only thing all of us in the impact zone want to know, is when (and ideally for how long), we will be without power. Will we be freezing for one hour, six hours or are our wires so well-placed as to not all affected? Or will we get cold and without the comfort of our favourite TV programs or access to a computer?
Vague "here's where we will start and end" projections don't cut it. And keeping everybody up to date via twitter assumes an awful lot. Twitter is nowhere near as ubiquitous as apparently somebody assumes.
But, given that the move now seems destined to last well into the week, having almost doubled in projected length, there's time to at least partially correct the lack of foresight regarding our needs. What you SHOULD do is to immediately calculate the following night's projected impact zone when you finish up at 6am. Break the impact into halves, thirds, quarters ... whatever granularity you can. Detail APPROXIMATE times of electrical and travel impact in a simple letter and print them out for delivery to the affected homes. Then employ some of the gazillion unemployed willing to do leg work and get those letters out to homes by lunch hour, supper hour at the latest.
A prepared victim is a lot less cranky victim. Yes, I'm talking about an expenditure that I assume won't be small. But on the night that I get a little frost-bite on my nose from a house that's gone without heat for a few hours, I'll find myself wondering if it would have been possible to crank the heat up ten degrees in the knowledge that soon there wouldn't be any, would have been a good idea.
That and wondering why Molson's ever thought this inconveniencing of potential customers wouldn't cost them the sales they hope to gain from these new vats. I know there will never be a bottle of their brew in this house. Ever again.
I'm starting to rant, so I will sign off. But I urge you to forewarn people in a manner that will be useful to them and not rely on these cryptic tweets and a map/guide that seems out of date by the time SOME of us can read it on the internet.
Gary M. Mugford
Is there a chance in hell that they will listen, accept and act on my advice? Nope. Dopes on parade will continue without regard to the citizenry. But I tried. And that makes me feel a little better now.
Won't matter a nonce come Monday night when I can't work on the computer or watch any of the accumulated hours of TV I've been saving for a snowy night ... with power. I'll probably be mumbling myself to sleep uttering a single mantra.
IDIOTS!
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