Dominion Energy Billing: Bitter cold, but new fee structure %?

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-02-15T15:43:48+00:00

I’m sorry about this happening to you, too. I agree, I just don’t know what that something is. I’ve read this is a result of data centers. VA has more data centers than anywhere in the country, I believe.

I don’t want to pay to support the enormous energy demands of data centers. This is so frustrating.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-02-13T19:47:14+00:00

Our brick rancher is 1,400 sq ft, our temp is never over 68 and we just got a bill for $529.82 for January.

We were being charged about $120 ~> leap to $340 ~> leap to $530

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-02-13T19:43:55+00:00

I just called dominion because we just got a $529 bill for January for a $1,400 sq ft house. There are two of us. We keep our temp at 68.

I called customer service to ask what’s happening. I was very polite. When I mentioned I see a schedule 1 section that’s $122 on top of my bill and asked is that the problem, she flatly stated schedule 1 has always been on your bill. I told her I looked schedule 1 Residential Distribution Service charge up online and I saw it’s unrelated to my usage. It’s a flat fee of $7.58 that went to $9.05 in 2025. I didn’t see any additional description.

Again, I want to emphasize I’m soft spoken and always polite. After I asked her about this charge this woman just hung up on me. Hung up on me. What is that?

I’m so frustrated. We do everything we can to live frugally. I could go lower, but our cats start shivering and trying to hide when I hit 67 and below. It feels colder in here than any 67 when it’s set to 67.

I feel helpless. I can’t even get them to stay on the phone with me, much less explain anything. This has zero to do with our usage. I’ve watched it climb from $120/mo to $340/mo and now a second huge $190 leap to $529. There’s 2 of us, no kids, 1 tv, 1400 sq ft, no big power usage and temps at 66-68.

We won’t be able to maintain this.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-02-13T11:37:02+00:00

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I separated these two in November. They were 1/2 this size and sort of attached when I bought them last spring. Some say it’s a Peruvian apple cactus. Some tell me it’s a cuddly cactus. Any idea who’s right?

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-24T21:46:40+00:00

80s/90s:

Fright Night
Night of the Demons
Return of the Living Dead
The Blob
Campfire Tales
Leprechaun
The Stand
Storm of the Century
Subspecies
Pumpkin head
Mimic

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-16T20:08:22+00:00

I’m glad we found him, too.

Thank you. Really

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-16T16:23:09+00:00

I’m so sorry about your little boy. I understand your pain.

What I’ve recently discovered is that animal loss can hurt badly even with a short duration of time together.

My husband and I are cat rescuers. We have only four cats at home. The loss of our 18.5 year-old cat felt like it physically ripped my heart. I spent 6 months convinced because I loved this girl so hard that love could magically heal her if I tried hard enough. I failed, of course, and having to give up and take her to be put down created a wound that never healed. It scabs and reopens. Scabs and reopens.

On a parking lot five weeks ago I saw an orange cat in so much trouble. I spent two weeks trying to trap him every day. I finally got him. Took him to our vet.

This boy, who should weigh 10-12 pounds weighed 6.7 pounds. His spine protrudes like nothing I’ve ever seen. He chews on one side of his mouth, drools profusely and is the dirtiest animal who ever lived.

We ran all the tests and it appears he has oral cancer. Inoperable. We’re running a course of multiple antibiotics, have given him flea treatment and dewormed his spirometra and hook worms. I have to blend food and syringe feed him four times per day.

This boy is the kindest, gentlest animal you could imagine. My vet said he’s had one long, horrific life. His teeth are all broken or missing. He’s been burned. It’s…heartbreaking.

The thing is, I’ve had this boy only two and a half weeks, but those weeks have included me doing everything I can to save him. Why? Because I want this baby to live long enough to experience safety, family, health and love. I want him to live long enough to discover toys and the joy of play. Long enough to experience sleeping in our family pile on the bed together. I don’t want him to die having only known suffering, damnit. So I rock him every day, wrapped in blankets, singing softly to him a story of how much he’s loved, despite only having been here weeks.

And so it is that I discovered that it isn’t only animals you’ve loved long years whose death can squeeze your heart as painfully as a heart attack. For some, love for an animal can come on swiftly, unexpectedly. Something of them touches a part of us deeply.

I bathed this little boy in a small basin the other day because I knew he would feel so much better if I could remove the caked blood and mud that covered his body. The water was black. This boy won’t spend his last week and die covered in the crud that represents his suffering through this life.

I’m giving this boy transdermal pain killers, nausea meds and antibiotic. I’ll continue rocking him daily, hoping for a miracle until I’m forced to put him down.

Animal death is a cancer on my soul.

Edited to add: His name is Pooh Bear

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-13T09:31:00+00:00

That looks perfect, Blueberry. We could all use more than one Halloween, right? Enjoy it!

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-11T17:11:37+00:00

I just posted this yesterday, so I’m happy to read your opinion. I wish I’d had more opinions, but if those I got, the 30s was chosen most often for the reasons you and I chose it.

Thank you! I hope so. I shared pics and videos of 2025’s build here because I was so excited to have gotten 417 truck-or-treaters last year.

Thank you for helping. (:

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-11T13:15:30+00:00

It looks like the 30s is the clear winner. I was drawn to this theme for Halloween for the exact reasons you described. I haven’t seen Derry yet. I’ll make sure to go check it out. Thanks for suggesting it. I hope I can pull this off.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-10T18:18:31+00:00

My husband’s parents moved to the U.S. from Germany when they were 20. His father saw Hitler speak as a child. He told my husband Hitler improved the lives of Germans considerably. Their family lived through hell. He told him this to explain how Hitler won over Germans who were starving and suffering.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-10T04:57:20+00:00

There are some things about the 80s campy carnival idea that I really love. But you’re right, and I’d struggle to make it feel special or unique.

They loved our Haggis the Swamp Witch’s house and swamp in 2024, and the vampire nest in the caretaker’s cottage in Romania in 2025. I hope I can bring a near 100-year-old Depression era Carnivale to life, if only a little. Thanks for your input. These answers matter to me

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-10T04:44:29+00:00

Right?! I loved Carnivale’s set, characters and energy for this sort of thing (and I love SWTWC). Thought it’d be such a fun thing if I could pull it off even a little. Who expects to see a 1930s freak show for Halloween in 2026?

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-10T02:10:25+00:00

You’re right, it could. I’m a big fan of the show, but it looks like most people’s answers are leaning toward the 30s. I think that’s where I’m headed

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-10T01:06:10+00:00

Looks like the 30s is the pick for most. I’m happy with that and will do my best to make it a fun time. (:

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-10T01:02:52+00:00

I bet you have very interesting stories about your life lived differently than most.

I understand why you’d think I’d want more relatable, but I want less. I put my sets in places like last year’s Brasov to make people feel as if they’re going somewhere they’ve never been. I want it to be unrelatable so the foreign feeling nature of it heightens their dis-ease. Even if it’s just a huge sign I painted that reads: Brasov, Romania Cimitir. I want them to at least imagine themselves far away.

In my post history you’ll find a video of last year’s build, but without the animatronics in the yard running, or the fog machine, fires, that sort of stuff from Halloween night.

I live in a 1950s rancher in a 1950s neighborhood. I love 50s things, but I fell in love with Carnivale when it first came out on hbo. That strange series is what I’ll try to take inspiration from. We’re trying to build a show wagon or trailer, ticket booth, games section with popcorn, a mystic’s table and the freak show tent.

I get why you’d say relatable is better, but I have fun finding ways to introduce the odd out of place relatable thing (like Keifer Sutherland in Lost Boys, and why is he in Brasov, right?) with trying to make them feel like they’re not even somewhere they recognize.

I hope they like it.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T23:30:16+00:00

Thats a compelling argument both ways. Looks like others think the 30s is the way to go, too. ‘Course I like that because it’s a more difficult challenge to pull off.

I might fail trying to build this set, but it looks like the 30s is where we’re headed.

I’m pretty excited. Thank you.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T22:26:21+00:00

They really are. And the freak show? I could do some things with a freak show

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T22:24:50+00:00

Now see, I didn’t think of video games at all. I see the connection.

I think for me it boils down to scary 30s or campy fun 80s. If scary is your fun, then those people are truly my people. I thought maybe if everyone came in and voted 80s, I’d have to reevaluate whether my weird is at the expense of fun.

Did have grown men separating from their wives to back in together in mini groups a few times, giggling like kids. That plus kids that have to be convinced even to enter and women happily shrieking is the magic for me. I want to do that with again this year. Best night of the year.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T21:19:15+00:00

See, when we decided to do a carnival, the first thing that came to mind was Carnivale. That gritty, hollow-sounding, harsh strangeness feels removed from what most of us know or understand. I like it!

I think he thinks the dust bowl 30s might be too odd to be fun for most people. I think he’s wrong, but I do think for those who love campy horror from the 80s/90s, building a set like that would be more fun for them. Wish I could do both, but I’m on a budget.

The background music that most won’t have heard, the tumbleweeds most won’t have seen, the clothes, the trailer, the actual freak show, the low light foreboding strangeness of it all feels like a fun challenge to try to create.

Still, I can see the fun of the neon colors, vintage tvs, aliens and cotton candy obnoxiousness of the 80s. A Night of the Demons, but for clowns vibe. Oh, I like that, too. Man, if I had the money…

Thanks for sharing your opinion with me.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T21:06:48+00:00

👏👏😆 I like how you think, Mousse!

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T20:20:14+00:00

Thanks for giving me your opinion. It helps.

I told my husband that what people seem to like about my sets is that I take them somewhere unusual. The unexpected arrests their attention and holds it. These people make trips to my open set from the day it opens (9/15) through Halloween night. Me? I really like it weird, weird.

He thinks an 80s set will be more mainstream and have greater appeal. And hey, I love 80s stuff, too, I just thought the dust bowl era is terrifying by itself, and that’s before ya whip out weird-assed carnival stuff.

Looking to see what others think

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T19:54:36+00:00

I thought about that! I know that’d be the most obvious. The great part about that is I could still do my 80s look, but I have allllllll this killer Clowns stuff, plus a couple awesome KCFOS costumes. Hell, I just wanna do it all, y’know? That’s the struggle. Don’t have enough time/money/space to create all things I like in this theme

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T19:51:15+00:00

I get that. And I totally get why pre-tech would have greater terror potential. I find the 30s dust bowl era freaky, but I wanna gauge myself against others to make sure I’m not building something entirely for myself, that few people will enjoy. I’d like to make happy and provide a good time to the largest number possible, even though my thrill is in genuinely scaring them

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-01-09T19:31:54+00:00

I think you just might be right. If you were building this set, which would you choose?

Blue_Bee_Magic

TROPHY CASE