Expensive Hope

Originally a twitter thread:

In my day job, one of the signs of progress and health is the ability to look at a situation as it is, without either catastrophizing OR denial. So yes, sometimes the goal of the next set of therapy is to come to terms with a terminal dx or the end of a relationship.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting eyes on This Thing and recognizing that This Thing is now THIS. Maybe it used to be THAT, but it is no longer THAT and the chances that it will ever be THAT again are very small. Or not in this lifetime, with these circumstances.

Coming to terms with This Thing can be hard, and slow, and painful, but the emotional honesty of coming to terms with it is much healthier than the usual alternative — denial.

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Winter Preparedness

Author’s note: This was originally written… a few years ago (?), to help a friend move to snow country. And then got some additions to maybe turn it into a series, and then I apparently got distracted. I’m posting it as is for now; I may come back to it and finish the series.

Power failures happen. Trees get overloaded with ice and fall through power lines. A car accident into a transformer or substation can blow the local area. High wind drops lines and tree branches. A pair of birds squabbling on high tension lines an create an arc from one line to another. The grid can be delicate, but it’s also extremely robust, because it works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with more than 99.999% uptime. Most power failures are local inconveniences that last no more than a few hours.

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