There was a
big blackout in the North East United States yesterday starting at
about 16:00 EST. Heck, they're power is still out as I write this
though most people should have power by tonight. The first I thought
when people started mentioning this was that some power station or
major transformer blew -- basically something relatively minor like
other major blackouts. What happens is that the power grid is already
stressed (this was the first hot day in a while) and it only takes a
relatively minor problem to bring large parts of the grid down.
And that's what happened yesterday. Some power station or power line
went down at a bad time. It wasn't a terrorist attack and I never
thought it was. I've experienced one before and it doesn't take a
terrorist to take down the power grid, though it does point to how
fragile the grid is. But I knew that. I've read articles about how
archaic and overstressed and patchwork the power grid is. It's not
something easy to fix, especially without government intervention to
force the power companies to work together.
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So apparently
I'm making an extra $150 per paycheck, $300 per month after my raise.
You know, that's enough to invest in a Roth IRA, which I plan to do
next year. Strangely, that makes me happy. I don't know if I should be
bothered by the fact that investing money makes me feel all warm and
fuzzy inside. It could just be me getting old and conservative.
I was also thinking of moving my WCBS 401k to some other account. But
I'm kind of lazy and going to the trouble of contacting Solomon Smith
Barney and setting up a Rollover IRA account is just too much.
Meanwhile, my bonus was $466 after all deductions, including $160 for
401k. A little less than I had hoped. That's the problem with bonuses:
you still deduct your retirement contributions which makes the bonus a
lot less.
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