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Edison nearly pulls plug on Obama inauguration
January 15th, 2009, 6:30 am · 31 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
The notice from Southern California Edison arrived at hundreds of Mission Viejo homes this week, informing them of a planned power outage - from 9 a.m. until noon on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Precisely when celebratory parades will be wending through Washington D.C., and when Barack Obama will be taking the oath of office as America’s 44th president.
“It is so bloody stupid - get a life here!” said an agitated Joyce Shewman, who lives in the Casta del Sol active seniors development. “Why can’t they wait one day? This is the inauguration of the first black president, and whether you like it or not, it’s historic.”
The ”power outage notification” that Shewman and some 350 of her neighbors received tells her to be sure to unplug all her appliances, to protect them from a possible power surge when the electricity comes back on. That means the computer, the refrigerator - and the TV.
“I can’t tape it because the TV has to be unplugged,” Shewman said. “I called Edison and spoke to 
a nice guy who said, ‘Can you find a friend’s house where you can go watch it?’ But I was going to tape it because I have a meeting I have to go to, and I wanted to watch the whole thing later.
“Upgrading their equipment!” she said. “I said, ’You can upgrade on almost any day of the year. Someone in your company should have looked at the calendar and said, ‘That may not be a good day!’”
We at OC Watchdog got on the blower and spoke with Edison region manager Frank Wasko. He explained that there’s a gas switch in the area in dire need of maintenance work - but that, given the situation, he is pushing back the outage one week, to Jan. 27.
“We think we can last seven more days with it,” Wasko said. “We are sensitive to seniors and the inauguration festivities.”
So, there you have it! The nation is coming together as one already.
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So what? Big deal!
this would be hilarious. by the way, every inauguration is “historic” - so I’m tired of hearing this constantly put into that particular context. all I’m hearing is the incredible security in and around DC for the inauguration. why did we never hear this before?
btw, I laugh at the people saying “it’s the first Black president!!” including the crazy lady in this article. let’s be technically correct, it’s “mulatto” president
“I can’t tape it because the TV has to be unplugged,…” At least let them keep the TV’s plugged in during the POWER OUTAGE. Funny things people say when they are angry.
LOL thefloyd
Whay to go SCE- PULL THE PLUG
bpsqwerty Says:
“btw, I laugh at the people saying “it’s the first Black president!!” including the crazy lady in this article. let’s be technically correct, it’s “mulatto” president”
____________________________________
Very true. His caucasian half doesn’t seem to get any credit.
Is this why Obama requested to delay digital TV so every one wouldn’t miss his historical appearance. lol.
his dad was an a-hole anyway, who left and wanted nothing to do with him. his lily white mom raised him and his name was Barry Soetaro for 3/4ths of his life. not “Barack Obama Jr” which is a made-up moniker. taking your deadbeat father’s name for political and personal gain, only in America!!
bpsqwerty, racist much? Call me crazy, but it appears you may have an issue with our new president.
OCMOTHER, the inauguration is on Jan. 20th and the digital TV transition isn’t until Feb. 17th so it wouldn’t matter if the transition was pushed back.
I wouldn’t watch it anyway. The power outage on 1/20 would have been welcomed.
“bpsqwerty, racist much? Call me crazy, but it appears you may have an issue with our new president.”
because I recognize his actual makeup as half black and half white, which liberals and the media refuse to recognize? you’ve got to be kidding me. he’s not “black”, he’s not “african american”. just like Tiger Woods, he’s mixed. I believe in calling something what IT IS. that is all
and you wouldn’t know much about me, but if ad-hominem charges make you feel better, then keep patting yourself on the back! hint: my wife is not white
Seniors need to get a life. Who cares if the power goes out and they cannot watch, they will forget the next day. SCE should go ahead with the planned outage instead of bowing down to the presure of the OC Watchdog
Exactemente, bpsqerty. Zombie libs are the ones that ply the r card. Also funny how vehemently they went after Palin about her daughter being unwed and preggo. Ya mean kinda like B. Hussein’s mammy? Double standard from the weft as usual. Incredible, yet flaccid.
Listen folks before pounding on SCE for bowing to pressure or the seniors for not having a life try to use your brains, please. SEC as any for profit business cannot afford to annoy their customers no matter how few or how old. It is bad PR specially when it will be made to look like they are pounding on seniors.
Why cant they upgrade late at night when everybody is asleep. Just like Cal Tran they have to run the Sweeper Trains during Rush Hour.
Who cares?
Just watch it later on Youtube… plus, the news spokeshead will be reshowing it over and over and over again…
bpsqwerty, if you have children (or were to have children) do/would you use the term mullato to describe them? Apologies if the racist label is undeserved. Perhaps you didn’t realize that the term mulatto is considered by many to be depreciatory. I would be loathe to use it to describe my bi-racial friends. But to each his own.
Who cares? I would think it is a good thing and a community service that Edison would be providing. I don’t plan on watching that steaming pile of excrement get sworn in anyways.
And if the gas switch blows up because maintenance was delayed, who will get blamed?
Edison, of course!
“Hey, you can’t cause a power outage on the twenty-fourth! That’s the new episode of my favorite TV show! It’s historic!”
Just dont’ let anyone assassinate him. Biden could only be worse.
Make sure you frisk Hilary before she gets near him.
Wait until the “gas switch in the area in dire need of maintenance work” fails before the new maintenance date. Everyone will blame SCE for not working on it sooner.
can’t win and AQ, too true. can’t please anybody!!
tell the grannies to get a generator. shouldn’t they have one anyway for emergencies? wow…
by the way an historic episode of “The Office” will be on later, which I will be watching. and another historic moment next tuesday, since “Lost” is on. I will also be watching Bush’s historic farewell speech but don’t know if I can sit thru all of Obama’s AIG-style party.
no, I will call them bi-racial or mixed. mulatto may be archaic but there’s nothing inherently offensive
bpsqwerty- almost every thing you say is offensive based on ignorance, arrogance, and hatred. You way what you want - no one can educate you. Your parents failed miserably.
Which day does Obama take office?
Business still has to operate regardless of other activities. Funny that they picked the day he takes office by chance.
I don’t think SCE even thought about it. The day before is a holiday, it’s the first day of the week, and they probably punched a time in the computer where they could go fix a faulty gas switch. If that block blows up before they can fix it, will Granny pay? Don’t think so.
Wow, I bet if the cable companies and satellites did a huge shut down on Superbowl Sunday for upgrades or repairs, then there would be OMGDRAHMA! Come on, right wingers. It’s history that matters to some, just like some of us couldn’t care less about football. Quit using it for your neo nazi rants, ‘kay?
Well as one who is affected and has received the notices I think they need to plan better up front. Look at a calendar that includes all kinds of important events before scheduling and outage. As one said, it doesn’t matter whether you like Obama or not–he is our president elect so we’d better accept that and hope and pray for the best at this point. It is a very important event that many people will want to watch and videotape (or whatever you call it these days).
Then they kind of overdid it on the change notices. Last night I received a recorded call confirming the change. Today in the mail I received a letter addressed to us that was mail merged with our name on it saying it would be changed, as well as the post card notifying of the change. Not sure when they sent out that letter, but they could have skipped it and saved themselves some money.
I’m wondering how much all this scheduling and then re-scheduling and all the extra notification is costing them–and then probably ultimately the rate payers if their costs go up too much?
And BTW, don’t insult Casta del Sol residents. You only have to be 55 to live here and that is the primary resident. Spouses can be younger and other family members only had to be 45 to live here without specially qualifying as a caregiver or something. In addition I’ve seen residents with adult children living with them for extended periods who were obviously younger than that. Its against the rules for them to be living here, but they weren’t bothering me.
As far as telling the senior citizens to get a life - they do have a life as shown by their interest in the world. How nasty some of you are. But how nice others are.
DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT BARACK OBAMA SAYS, BUT CAREFULLY WATCH WHAT HE DOES !!!
Barack Obama is the greatest liar in history (no wonder he is an excellent lawyer!) During his campaign, he told lots of hope in future for America if he was elected, but now he warns Americans of oncoming darker economy and not to put too much hope in his promises. He promises a big plan to reduce budget deficit while his inauguration ceremony this January will be the most costly in history (50 millions) as well as his presidential campaign (600 millions), which was much more than his opponent John McCain’s. He swears to clean up Washington DC, but he failed to first clean up his homestate Illinois, one of the most corrupted state with the scandal of Governor Rod Blagojevich, who greatly helped Obama to win his state senate seat in 1996, 1998, and 2002. And his favorite slogan is “Yes, we can”, yet he himself cannot quit smoking at all !!!
After all this about the planned outage with notice and then changing it, we were hit with an outage Sunday night, right about dinner time. Didn’t get any notice about that but when I finally called SCE after power had been out for an hr with it getting dark and trying to figure out if I needed to go out for dinner some place (unless I wanted cheese and crackers or something) their update recording showed planned times for the outage from 7:30 am to 12:30 am (we actually lost power abruptly and without warning about 5:45 pm). So after hearing that, I decided I’d better go out and was trying to figure out where to go when the power came back on.
So I’m wondering if this was from that switch they were going to fix or something else.
And I’m wondering if we will get another excess of notifications?
Whoops, that was Sat night, not Sunday night that the surprise outage happened in Casta del Sol.