Tunnel Vision

I have no other words for the last two weeks than I feel I am in a really long tunnel. Between work and this STUPID UC, my world is a little, more like a lot, upside down.

Two weeks ago today I was reading some energy industry news updates and seeing that the Midwest was in fear of a real propane shortage with the frigid, single digit temps we were continuing to have. I know most people really don't understand everything I do with my job but bottom line, when it comes to the energy assistance side of my job, I try to stay ahead of the crisis to keep our client's families safe. You've heard the adage, "poor people have poor ways". Been there, done that, and when you are faced with no alternatives, you do what you have to do. I worry that my clients who are out of propane will try to use outdated, old heaters, make something makeshift, or try something just because they have no other alternatives. Of course, we had a holiday on the Monday and I took more time to research that yes, it was going to be a long week, especially since many days, the high was to be 9°.

Tuesday morning, when I got to work, I started calling my propane vendors, yep. What I didn't want to hear. Limiting deliveries to 200 gallons, may run out completely between getting trucks back into the area and prices were going to have to skyrocket to pay for all the transportation. It was not going to be a fun week.

We toughed through a lot of stuff and in the meantime, started hearing from our constituents at the state that they were working on plans to help. That in itself gave me some relief.

Then on the 24th, my UC decided to rear its ugly head though and that added fuel to the fire. I absolutely did not have time to be sick. I had a hair appointment Saturday morning, ran and got the stuff I absolutely had to have from Walmart and came home and sat. When I was in the hospital last year, that was my Dr's biggest thing, get some rest. So I was trying. Sunday I went to church, came home and did the exact same thing. On Monday I called the doctor and asked if I should start back on prednisone, the answer was yes so I was hoping to see some improvement by Wednesday. Thursday, I thought I was getting better. Thursday night, I was seriously wishing I could die. Needless to say, I have done nothing of an evening all week. I can't stand when my house is messed up and it is, though I spent most of the day yesterday resting, I did at least straighten up the family room, living room and dining room, partially the kitchen and Robert carried the laundry up and down for me so it is done. Today, I am staying home from church with every thought being on just resting. I will get my desk cleaned off sometime today. But with the guys home and their willingness to help me, I think we can have the house presentable for another week. Hopefully this "resting" thing will make this week better with the UC because I have to be at work this week, have to.

Back to the bigger issue though, the propane. Last Tuesday afternoon, we had a conference call with the rest of the LIHEAP Coordinators throughout the state and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the ones who issue our grants. I felt so much better after that call because it sounded like we were all on the same page and we were going to be able to get our clients the right help. Friday we got the official notice that everything was to fall into place tomorrow. I made the statement to some on Friday that I drive 20 minutes home from work, from Greenup to Newton, along that way are many houses, almost all of them fueled with propane, including the towns of Hidalgo, Rose Hill and Falmouth. Most of the people who live in those houses I have known my entire life, some of them are clients, some of them are friends and some of them are family. Knowing that we were seriously seeing the light at the end of this tunnel did make that drive much more easy.

Here is a link to the press release of what we are doing.
http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=1&RecNum=11899


So tomorrow morning we start giving bigger payments to our propane clients, I have already been asked how the other clients are going to handle this, my answer is simply "if your gas would get to $6.00 a unit, we would find a way". There are so many differences there though. We have two "national" propane companies, the rest are small mom and pop's, or coops. They simply do not have the means to take someone propane if they know they aren't going to ever see the money and let's look at that, 200 gallons of propane at the national average of $4 a gallon is $800, what you normally pay for almost twice as much propane, which means in half as much time, you are going to need even more. We have safeguards in place for many electric and gas companies that they either agree not to shut off at all in the winter or that they won't shut off if the weather is below 32°, you just don't have that with propane, you can't magically tell the tank not to run out of gas.

Today, I am praying for the rest of my family as they go to church this morning, we have a blanket of snow and ice on the ground so Andrew is on his way to my mom's to get her for church. My guys will be home this afternoon and everyone will focus on resting. Tonight the guys will go back to church and then I will probably be stuck after church watching the DVR of the Superbowl. I only ever watched for the commercials and most of them have already been leaked so I guess my big thing is finding out what happened to the poor yellow M&M.

The brightest little tidbit that happened this week is I got approval to go to the National Energy and Utility Affordability Conference in June. It is in Kansas City this year so I am taking Andrew and hoping to go see Grandma Virginia the weekend after the conference. I love this conference because as stated at the first of this post, I love being able to have the knowledge to really help our clients, this conference gives lots of good information. I normally have gotten to go every other year so was really pleased I get to go with it being so close.

Happy Sunday everyone, it sounds like we are in for a real winner of a week weather wise so stay safe.