$17k.  That's what's in the article from The Hill and is now the highest I've seen for electricity bills in Texas for those on Griddy who were held hostage as other providers (who had no service to provide) refused to take new customers until Feb 26.  What good does it do to warn people that prices are going to jack up so they should consider switching if there's nobody they can switch to and otherwise they die of hypothermia?! While people without power were literally DYING of hypothermia.....

Jesus fucking Christ.... A $17,000 power bill?! Over less than a week's worth of energy use?!  What the fuck?! What the actual fuck... 

Also. Beyond the price gouging power bills. These humanitarian horror stories are just fucking heart breaking and so fucking unnecessary....

Just. Read the first three paragraphs of this article from the Houston Chronicle.

 Even if you don't have the heart or head space to read the entire article... Just read the first three paragraphs. Just the first three. (And the third paragraph is just 11 words in length....)

I mean fucking a... Such a fucking senseless tragedy created by gross negligence.... It never needed to happen, to be that way... 

I'm sorry but I'm just so fucking appalled by the level of unnecessary suffering and senseless tragedy. It's just so heartbreaking and infuriating.... None of it had to happent... 

I'm just so heartsick watching the ineptitude and greed that brought about all this senseless suffering.  (even while seeing all the mutual aid  and grassroots assistance going on, the failures in government to do their damn fucking job pisses me off and guts me.) 

After tonight, I'm planning to take an internet break til after the Sunday snowstorm. (Projected 3-6" more of snow -- but I live in Wisconsin, so our state knows what to do with it. I intend to lay a fire Sunday afternoon/night during the snowfall and to make a tater tot hotdish with cheese and tots and  some of my leftover venison-wild rice-cranberry-pea stew that I froze because I ended up making WAY too much stew. Probably go with the maple jack cheese for it flavor wise. And if you don't know what a hotdish is look it up -- and if you don't know what a hotdish is then you're DEFINITELY not from the upper midwest Great Lakes/Plains region, lol.  Hot dish is to Minnesota what cheese and beer are to Wisconsin. Tater tot hotdish is also a VERY Sconnie thing, though not quite as Sconnie as year-round Fish Fry and brandy Old Fashioneds on Fridays.)  My head and heart both need some time to myself to heal up, some time away from the news and the world. 

As an empath, sometimes the hurts of the world and the tragedies of the cycles of incarnation and the suffering in the lessons in it are just extra heavy. I feel the hurt of others as my own hurt -- it's why a true empath can't act from a place of cruelty without it being an act of self-harm. Anyone who claims to be an empath yet knowingly acts as a bully and is cruel to others is a narcissist in empath's clothing, pretending to be something they aren't so they can manipulate others.

O but tomorrow I need to remember to text one of my cousins for her birthday... (I have two Pisces sun cousins, one of them has her birthday tomorrow. And to them, things like birthday texts matter. Like they get it if you ADHD lose track of the flow of time forget on the day of because they can do the same thing -- but it makes them super happy when someone does remember. So i need to try to remember for tomorrow.) 

But other than reaching out to Sabes tomorrow for her birthday, I plan to spend the weekend hermitting with my animals and a fire during the Sunday snowfall and a venison stew tater tot hotdish and my books and some music.