swraith

Just chiming in to back up closetojumping. I have spent unfathomable hours at our company with sales executives who are trying to sell our commodity product on any basis other than price. A significant segment of the population shops for the lowest price energy. But a much larger segment of the population does not. Should they? Probably, but it is a personal choice. I myself would fall into the shop on price category. But entire brands are being built either around 1) higher priced commodity tied to a high quality customer service experience based on the billing side. Not customer service of guaranteeing the lights stay on. 2) higher priced commodity based on some affinity or social justice cause. This could be green energy or any other product packaging. 3) higher priced commodity based on some upfront incentive like a free thermostat, gift card, or some other hook. The list of marketing idea goes on. Many REPs want to sell on lowest price because that is the easiest sale. It makes for a challenging sustainable business in the long run like is demonstrated with Breeze. Company was founded in late 2000 based on articles I saw today, but alas they are now defunct. I don’t know the details of their default but REPs normally do not openly default. Either they fire sale the company or the creditors intervene and take control of the company to avoid dropping customers to POLR. Brands have failed in years prior, just not publicly. I am making the assumption that if Breeze couldn’t firesale their customer book in front of the summer, the company was in particularly dire straights. Sustainable growing energy retailers have to find ways to expand their unit margins. Selling the lowest price commodity is not the path to achieve that. ^^ All of the above does not apply to energy companies based on MLM strategies like Ambit or Stream. Those are different business models.

I realize the hysteria of a trade wars is the news of the day. But US equities markets, while down, certainly aren’t crashing. SP500 is still very high. Other indicators like unemployment and GDP growth while not robust are not terrible. So I guess get back to me when either 1) The GOP gives a shit and starts taking action to restrict some of Trump’s chaos. 2) US equity markets fall something like 15-20%. Until then it mostly seems like shrug your shoulders as this is just standard fare for our current president and nothing to get your day ruined. I imagine most of the pain of the actions we see today won’t be felt until much later down the road. ^^^ The above is not an endorsement of the current actions of the administration. Merely an acknowledgment that no powers that be are currently challenging Trump domestically.

This mother fucking summer is gonna burn.

‘Murica. Fuck Yeah. Our end game in Syria is non existent. Our long term goals in the Middle East are not defined. Our ability to win asymmetric urban wars in the long run is not clear. Want to fight our armed forces in toe to toe combat on the battlefield? Then we will most certainly fuck you up.

Holy fuck. 105? I did 28 this morning and that damn near wiped me out. 105.... going to need a lot of beer after that.

So jealous. My peaches are still green and hard. A few have been knocked off the tree in the past week. Plenty still on the tree but no sign of ripening yet. Getting a little worried.

The St Augustine has begun to grow with gusto. Here is my best effort to take care of the lawn in the last 4 years.

I had these eating milkweeds this year.

Soft caress mahonia

It doesn’t seem realistic to harden these targets to the point of being successful without turning the school into a full on prison.

No rain in the forecast other than Sunday’s small rain chance. We are screwed for a while.

A weather vendor we use at work has a high of 99 for Thursday at camp Mabry. Fuck

This lack of rain bodes ill for the summer. Hot and dry. Boo.

I got my notification from 5 stone today as well.

First cherry tomatoes are ripening.

My peaches are coming along. Still very green. Guessing about 3-4 weeks till they ripen. Neighbor has a peach tree they totally ignore. Offered free peaches for the picking. We picked a basket full. I was skeptical as it is very early and these were yellow with no blush. Let them sit on the counter for 3 days to ripen a bit more. Tried the first one and was amazed. Fantastic small cling peach. And the neighbor totally ignores said peach tree. Family ate the whole basket in 4 days. Wished we had picked a second basket.

Two of my roses are in bloom. Acquired them last fall from a neighbor who was getting rid of them for free.

Thank you sweet baby Jesus. Tapatalk may be a horrible company but the product is my defacto standard for browsing forums. Also it seems to use less battery than web browser.

I am experimenting with growing a raspberry plant in a pot this year. Heritage Red variety. If it survives/thrives I may add more plants and put them in the ground next year.

My wife picked up a cultivar of walking iris last year. She left it in a pot for the last 12 months and it never did anything. We divided it this spring and planted the 2 divided plants in the ground. Blooms seem impressive. But they last less than 24 hours. Had 3 rounds of blooms so far.

Instead of calling the cops, maybe everybody should have just had another round of drinks.

What is a good replacement website ?

Damn. 50 years seems heavy. No mas fajitas.

Running soaker hoses on my my pecan and peach trees today. No rain this weekend and no rain in the forecast.

I think my SIL is entering her final battle setting up her loss to the cancer war. Palliative care is being arranged after her long running battle with stage 4 colon cancer that has spread to her lungs and lymph nodes. It now appears to have started growing in her hip bone. Chemo no longer seems to be slowing the cancer’s advance. Her mobility is declining and she is succumbing to the immense and constant pain. She is starting to take some serious pain meds that cause her to sleep most of the day. This is going to crush my wife. Her sister is her only sibling. Fuck.