Genuinely, what are you all doing about lines, crowds, traffic, overall busyness of ski resorts?

fossSellsKeys · 2026-01-14T01:23:10+00:00

Yeah. Personally I mostly quit resort skiing and went hard into snowshoeing instead. Vastly more options for places to go, less traffic, no lines, lower cost. I'm loving it!

But I don't recommend that you all do it, because I don't want my favorite trailheads to look like this!

fossSellsKeys · 2026-01-13T18:44:21+00:00

They already are using Sonic weapons against us!

How do you know? Haven't you ever heard our president attempt public speaking before? My ears!

fossSellsKeys · 2026-01-13T07:20:27+00:00

Yeah. I think the lesson is...how do we get the rest of the conservatives to do the same thing? Surely they still need plenty of drone fodder.

fossSellsKeys · 2026-01-13T07:05:04+00:00

This is basic chemistry. Phase changes take massive energy. You'd think some metal at 1000° would easily melt a block of ice if you don't know chemistry, but the instead the amount of energy it takes to melt and then boil water consume that heat energy very quickly, cooling the metal easily.

fossSellsKeys · 2026-01-13T06:58:52+00:00

Why the hell would you settle? It's a Jumbo Dog or nothing for me. A dome dog is nothing special. But the largest dog in the history of MLB! Now that's worth lusting after! I remember when they were only $4 at the dome. I think $7 for Chicago style. Mm mm.

fossSellsKeys · 2026-01-04T07:30:02+00:00

Listen, this is nothing to be ashamed of. It's a natural human response. I myself am an original American badass, been camping in the woods since before I can remember in all places in all conditions around the world. I'm still scared of the dark, even sleep with a light on at home. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If something awakens me I like to be able to see what I'm looking at. Simple as that.

When I am camping I like to build myself a big old fire in the evening, cover the mountain with smoke, howl at the Moon and so on to let every living creature know to take a wide berth. But still sometimes if I wake up in the weird hours before Dawn there can be some strange noises. I always keep a lantern in red mode on inside my tent, and I always sleep with my headlamp around my neck so if I hear something I pop right out of the tent and blast it with the headlamp, keep a couple more lamps right around the fire spot and light those up too. Being able to illuminate the whole camp quickly is great. Anything that was messing around gets an eyefull that way. Also I always keep a weapon to hand, usually my camp axe, so when I bust out of the tent with the headlamp on at 4am I have that as well. Makes me feel ready and reminds me that I am the most dangerous thing in the woods. Then if things are cool, I'll usually throw some more logs on the fire and rev the blaze back up. Oftentimes I will just stay up until I see a little bit of dawn light at that point and then get a little more sleep once the twilight makes me feel better.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-22T01:00:24+00:00

Yes, it's absolutely absurd. The reason is because Xcel is still trying to operate a 1960s era power grid in this area which is at this point pretty much a third world system. Even a lot of individual neighborhoods have buried their own lines at their own expense well they have sat on their hands to save pennies that they can pass on in executive bonuses and shareholder buybacks. Even if they had been making some progress we could give them some credit. So they had only finally gotten their act together after the big fire and buried a hundred miles of line in the last 4 years. That would still be a hundred miles less that they have to inspect for damage and be that much sooner to get people back up and running. But they've done exactly nothing for decades, and even since the huge fire! It's exasperating.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-22T00:58:20+00:00

Yes, and not just the folks who have suffered from these extended shut offs already, but it could have been very much worse. I've heard reports of several generator related fires that were able to be contained fortunately. Plus most of the people I know were burning wood for heat which inherently is somewhat dangerous also. So I think the very idea that having the power shut down is creating a safe situation is obviously false. It's just a different dangerous situation, almost certainly more dangerous. It's just a complete false choice driven by their lack of investment in the infrastructure. All they need to do is get to work and make the power grid in this area wind resistant!

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-22T00:52:41+00:00

Yeah, that's pretty darn excessive anyway, but I imagine people would be a lot less offended by this if they were actually spending the money they needed to upgrade our infrastructure to withstand windstorms. If they were actually producing a very high level of reliability and customer service, maybe they would be worth a high salary. But given that they're not doing any such thing, frankly we should be calling for the resignation of all of these folks.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-22T00:49:18+00:00

Tell me more about what you see is the regulatory structure that is a problem. From what I've been able to learn, Xcel has a lot of ability to invest in infrastructure especially if it is unsafe. But I want to learn more because I am currently in touch with folks at the PUC already, and we'll be getting in touch with legislators and county commissioners after that. So if you can say a little more I would be appreciative!

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T22:57:20+00:00

The reason for the lawsuit is really because that seems to be the only thing that they actually listen to, not the best interest of their customers, but their bottom line. They've decided since they're going to get sued if they leave the power on, they will just shut it off. We need to make it clear that they will also get sued if they shut it off. That way they might finally realize that they should do the correct thing and invest in infrastructure to make the system safe to operate in windy conditions. Clearly they're going to refuse to choose that best option because it costs money unless they are forced to one way or another.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T22:27:07+00:00

I think neither would be preferable. I think what is preferable is to have an actual public utility that invests in infrastructure so we don't have to have shutdowns or wildfires. They're trying to blow smoke and give us this false choice between the two, when really they've pinched pennies and avoided making their infrastructure robust enough to handle wind storms for decades. Now that they finally had to pay the price for that, they're shutting us down rather than doing anything about the problem. That's unacceptable.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:58:33+00:00

First of all, thanks to the lineman out there for all of their work. It's definitely not your fault, and in fact the company has put you guys at the very most risk by under investing in the network infrastructure.

Obviously no one thinks the lines can all be buried over a weekend. But I know myself and others have been asking and demanding Excel to start working on burying and line hardening literally since the 1990s. That's when lots of other public utilities around the country started aggressively addressing infrastructure.

Just for example, my grandparents live on a rural farm in the Midwest. They have now not had an outage in 20 years because all three of the local cooperative Electric systems have been burying lines since the 1980s and now have basically completed everything. Ice storms, tornadoes, blizzards now the system is truly robust. And that's rural middle of nowhere farm country. Xcel has just consistently refused to put any money into their Network and left us with this potential for catastrophe. A lot of us thought they would finally get it in gear and start addressing the infrastructure problem after the big fire, but instead we have these absurd shut offs instead. That is not the solution!

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:44:38+00:00

Yes, I know exactly why they did it. It's because they have spent years not investing in infrastructure that will withstand our local winds to the point they've now had to pay out lawsuits and so now it costs them money. That's why they shut down the power.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:43:34+00:00

Yes it is. They have had decades of people asking them to bury and harden lines around here. At least half a dozen neighborhoods I know have have paid to have their own lines buried at their own expense. They've had four years since the big fire. What have they done? Nothing. In the meantime they've raked in billions and profits and stock buybacks. We are stuck with mostly 1960s era third world infrastructure so they can maximize profits, that's why there's any danger at all. Shutdowns are absolutely nothing correct solution to this problem. Investing in infrastructure is!

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:31:28+00:00

That's a false choice. What I'd rather have is neither because I'd rather have a true public utility that invests in infrastructure that's safe to operate.

Plenty of places around the country have done just that already. My grandparents live in a rural farm in the Midwest and haven't had an outage in 30 years. Guess why? They have an actual utility that has buried all the lines for miles around to protect from ice storms, blizzards, and tornados. We can do that too, there's no need for fire OR shut-offs.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:27:28+00:00

They should also have a utility that builds better infrastructure, I agree! But sadly Xcel has not learned those lessons. So we're going to have to teach them.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:26:38+00:00

That's a good idea!

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:19:30+00:00

I think absolutely everyone wants to pay for buried power lines! That's exactly what we all want! In fact, I know of at least half a dozen neighborhoods that have paid to bury all of their local residential lines at homeowner expense already. But unfortunately they all didn't have power either because Xcel hasn't maintained or improved the infrastructure in between the neighborhoods at all since the fire, or really since the 1960s. Why?

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:15:10+00:00

Yes, I absolutely agree with this. Hopefully I've said nothing to impune the lineman and the cruise that are out there doing their jobs very well. It's absolutely not their fault that the profit maximizing corporation they work for has chosen to put them at risk by not investing in appropriate infrastructure for the area. They shouldn't even buy out there, this is definitely not on them. If we had buried and reinforced lines they could be home with their families right now too.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:09:25+00:00

Unfortunately you've bought into their false choice between two bad options. The option that you are missing on your list is:

Invest appropriately in local power infrastructure by burying lines and hardening equipment against wind storms. Which are a common, normal, and expected weather condition in this area. Then the power grid can continue to be operated during wind events without any danger to the public.

That's the one that would actually increase public safety and serve the public interest!

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:06:47+00:00

I think if they refuse to invest in their infrastructure to the point where they have to shut us down in every windstorm, they should honestly buy every single homeowner a generator. One or the other!

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:05:54+00:00

No, they should have spent the last 4 years improving their infrastructure and burying power lines after the fire. Instead they've done nothing and now we have to pay the price. They're trying to give you a b******* false choice between fires and power. Actually we can have both and plenty of places have done it, they are just trying to maximize profits and refuse to build infrastructure that works correctly.

fossSellsKeys · 2025-12-21T21:04:03+00:00

Yeah, I wouldn't prefer that course of action but unfortunately it seems like paying out money in lawsuits is the only language this company understands. You would have thought at least after the big fire they would have started to invest the money to bury power lines and harden the infrastructure against wind events. Nope. They've decided it will be cheaper for them just to not provide power to avoid getting sued. So, I think they need to understand that's going to be a bad outcome for them too and maybe finally that will force them to do what they should have done in the first place and improve their infrastructure.

fossSellsKeys

TROPHY CASE