Surprising Stuff
The holiday spirit is all about giving, caring, and charity.
“Charity is caring about the entirety of life and not just a selective caring about someone or some aspects at the exclusion of the rest. One needs to care about all of it. That’s what charity requires.” That is how it was explained by my preacher, and how it should be, but most of us seem to only care about our little slice of the pie at the expense and exclusion of others. Charity, however, like love, has no borders or walls and even transcends space and time. Charity starts as a caring feeling from within one’s heart that is given freely to another. Sometimes it is associated with a gift of one’s property, time or life; whereas, a gift without charity is an impersonal donation of one’s things.
Charity is a gift from the heart and it is best when there is a direct connection between the person who is giving and the person who is receiving because every additional hand it passes through makes the gift more impersonal for both those giving it and for those receiving it. Charity, like love, is a two-way street that needs to be felt by both parties. The purpose of charity is to touch and help the life of another and to do so it must come from one’s heart and needs to be felt in the heart of another to complete the link and create a bridge that momentarily bonds those two lives into one.
The WE Energy’s lack of holiday spirit and heart.
A disconnection notice came to the GSR offices on Friday of last week. The bills had been paid so nobody could understand the notice. The disconnection was to take place on the following Tuesday, but one caveat was that the utility offices were closed until Tuesday by the time the notice was taped to the GSR’s front door. The problem turned out to be a billing error on the part of the gas company, which also involved changing the bill payer so the real bill payer could not contact the company about the bill or anything else about the account! On the telephone, talking to emergency services and eventually, residential services was more like a cultural anthropology experience rather than one of true communication.
We Energy uses outsourced customer services in Pakistan or India. Those people have no heart. A robot would be preferable to talk to compared to those people. The problem was finally straightened out, but it took many hours. There was no apology for the error. Currently, we can come out and turn off your power even when it is below zero, so we need to get a new law passed to prevent that possibility and give us all peace of mind. As it stands now, you must first go to WE before your bill is past-due if you are short, and let them know you cannot pay.
That’s called a Cold Weather Rule report. If you wait until you owe them money you can’t pay and your bill is overdue, then it is too late. Yes, they will shut you off even if it kills you, your family, your pets and anything else that cannot get by in below zero temperatures. If you own a business the CWR does not apply because it is for residential customers only. And don’t bother calling WE on the weekends or holidays because they are off being nice and toasty, while you might be freezing. WE Energies has not changed the name of their customer service department to the customer collection department yet, and they probably won’t although they should. They are neither caring nor honest. If they turn off your power and it’s below zero, call the GSR at 262 812 4000. You have a much better shot at staying alive by calling us, than calling a modern utility in Wisconsin’s current mean-spirited business environment.
If they come to disconnect you and it’s below zero then get the workers name. We’ll publish that name here!
Ice Fishing 2018
How thick is thick enough? How far can they safely go out?
Is it really worth the risk? These are truly diehard fisherman.
