the nightmare life without fuel

well it's been a while since i've written. almost one month to be exact. surprising seeing as how i've got pictures of a tiny frog i found while fishing, a shot of lucy (our cat) wearing a bandana and many other delightful things to share with you. but those will have to wait...

if any of you have read asimov's 'the nightmare life without fuel' you might think i'm exaggerating my current situation by using that title today. however, i am in no way attempting to compare my current situation with that. i didn't even know the book existed until yesterday, but i thought it was a nice way to describe what i've been feeling lately.

on july 22nd, vectren energy paid me a visit to shut my gas off at the meter. to be honest, i had forgotten to pay the bill. but even if i had remembered, i wouldn't have had enough to cover it. the hot water lasted another day, but more importantly, my stove is powered by gas, and that left me unable to cook.

it only took about 48 hours for me to completely break down.

i hadn't taken the time to realize that i was in a full summer stride with the kitchen. fresh produce is abundant. i had just started canning, making preserves from a friends blackberries and jalapenos from a neighbor. walking out to the garden almost daily and picking fresh vegetables. my kale is still producing at a rapid pace and i had just recently discovered a greek kale salad recipe that had been a BIG hit with everyone that got a taste. ironically, i planted the garden to save money on fresh produce throughout the summer. but now, i am unable to cook most of it.

taking the ability to cook away from me left me feeling, well...totally helpless. and then there's the other catch. so if you don't have the money to pay your gas bill, you probably don't have money to eat out right? here's a breakdown of what customers are expected to pay:

$231.00 deposit- supposedly refundable after 9 MONTHS
$60.00 reconnect fee- not refundable.
$145.66 ACTUAL BILL, obviously, this varies customer to customer

$436.66 that's the total i would have to pay to have my service reconnected.

and this is when i got to thinking...i'm NOT the worst case scenario here. there are families with children, the elderly, etc. that can't even imagine coming up with the $60.00 reconnect fee, let alone the $231.00 deposit they're expecting. needless to say, i got pretty upset about this reality. vectren offers no sort of sliding scale for their low income customers. they send you to your township trustee...did anyone see the news on sunday? well, the headline was something like "community flocks to township trustees for assistance." people are asking for assistance in record numbers. not everyone is eligible, not everyone will qualify even if they are eligible. the trustee's gonna run outta money and then what? then they send you to another assistance program...and it just so happens that they don't offer energy assistance until october.

so i did the only thing i knew to do. i sent 11 letters to the CEO's and board members of vectren. obviously addressing my own situation, but making more of a point to addess those less fortunate than myself. as utitlity customers, we are ALL subjected to the monopoly that is this industry. pay it or suffer seems to be the best way to describe it. at the time i'm writing this, the letters are making their way to the people responsible for deciding these rates and the ones that are able to change them. we'll see what kind of response i receive...

in the meantime, i'm taking stock of alternative cooking methods. i still have a microwave, a crockpot, a rice cooker and a griddle.

hot water i can live without, but no cooking? THAT was the straw that broke this camels back.