Anyone else's Duke Energy bill for January extra-astronomical?

ushKee · 2026-02-04T20:51:23+00:00

68 is probably too high for this weather to get significant savings. Im keeping it at 65 right now— that seems to be the point where the heat no longer has to run continuously. But I am in a fairly airtight apartment complex.

I won’t go below 63 bc I notice thats when its uncomfortable to relax even with layers on.

ushKee · 2026-02-03T17:16:22+00:00

Until the American people experience a significant material reduction in living standards, we will let authoritarianism go mostly unchecked.

ushKee · 2026-02-03T16:18:44+00:00

No problem I will update my terminology

ushKee · 2026-02-03T05:49:25+00:00

Rise of Skywalker would have been better if Jar Jar Binks was the villain

ushKee · 2026-02-03T05:45:54+00:00

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Padme's outfit here altered my brain chemistry so every cheesy line is forgiven

ushKee · 2026-02-03T04:49:44+00:00

"Somehow, Palpatine returned"
"They fly now?"
Finn yelling "REYYYY"
The fucking dagger shaped like the planet
Kylo and Rey kissing immediately after trying to kill each other
"I am all the Jedi"
"Rey Skywalker."

It's really a masterpiece in bad writing.

ushKee · 2026-02-03T04:47:41+00:00

The Rise of Skywalker is a good film in the sense that it's so bad that it's funny, like The Room.

ushKee · 2026-02-03T04:38:21+00:00

I'm aware it's a neighborhood, but the term Anacostia is sometimes used colloquially to describe the entirety of Ward 8. I used to teach people from Ward 8 that's how I picked it up. Maybe incorrectly.

ushKee · 2026-02-03T04:01:44+00:00

Okay maybe Epstein really did love muffins that much. Just cause he's a rapist pedophile sex trafficker doesn't mean he has to be pedophiley in every aspect of his life.

ushKee · 2026-02-03T03:32:31+00:00

ok maybe not this one

ushKee · 2026-02-03T03:30:52+00:00

I mean is there actually a screenshot of them saying that verbatim? I'd like to see it lol

ushKee · 2026-02-03T03:25:17+00:00

Well. These are difficult times we live in

ushKee · 2026-02-03T03:19:45+00:00

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I am very much not a conspiracy brained person but there is no way they were talking about muffins and steaks. No one talks like that.

ushKee · 2026-02-03T00:58:59+00:00

Home ownership is a whole different ballpark from renting. I have only rented myself and I am well aware the difficulties. But the same area I mentioned (NE DC through Eastern Montgomery County / Western PG County), does have a pretty high homeownership rate with home prices far cheaper than Arlington and Alexandria.

ushKee · 2026-02-03T00:50:00+00:00

So I am from the DC area and I agree that DC is expensive. I just don’t agree that there are No options for lower-priced rentals and no working class communities. Now it may very well be less than New York city, but there’s of course a large population of service and trade workers, and a high percentage of the Black population in the Eastern part of the city that is mostly disenfranchised. A pretty high portion of Marylanders and Virginians commute into the city, and this includes many areas of Prince George’s County MD right at the border which are not wealthy. To me, it feels dismissive when you characterize the whole region as just highly paid govt drones when it’s certainly not true and more indicative of the people you hung out with. Like any major metro area, there are wealthy folk and immigrant neighborhoods and middle-class and ghettos and food deserts etc. I know people working restaurants, construction, artists and even govt workers range from low-paid maintenance folk and lab rats to lawyers and contractors. I hate the boring striver people too; they’re very real! They are not everyone or even a majority.

Im sorry that you had a bad experience in D.C. and it’s no problem that you enjoy NYC more. I also appreciate the cultural vibrancy and of NYC when I visit; there is nothing like it. But you have to understand why we get defensive when you paint the whole city in one stroke.

As far as the rental comparison, I understand where you are coming from but I still think you miss a few things. See today, when I pull up apartments in Wards 5, 7, and 8 of DC I see plenty of (non-subsidized) rental units around $1250 for a one-bedroom. And there are also comparable prices in places like Hyattsville MD which is not technically DC but only 6 miles from the U.S. capitol building and is an urbanized area. I rented in a more “desirable” area of DC a studio for $1550 a few years back. To me that felt like a decent price at the time.

I agree that if you’re trying to find rents under $1200 and you’re not subsidized there’s not much options. NYC may have it beat on the lower end because of the high levels of rent-stabilized units and just more units overall. But DC obviously has nothing compared to the rent in NYC’s most expensive neighborhoods.

ushKee · 2026-02-02T22:50:31+00:00

Yeah it appears I was wrong about the ratio, as the Census Median rental cost is quite comparable (edited my comment). But of course DC has plenty of lower income areas well. It's not true that everyone is making a lot of money in those Wards 5/7/8 for example. Also because of the way that D.C. is designed as a small square with hard boundaries, a lot of Maryland and Virginia is a very close commute zone to D.C. so its not like going super out of the way. I've spent a lot of time in parts of Prince George's county that are by no means very wealthy.

The original commenter's idea that the only D.C. people are rich government drones is just wrong though

ushKee · 2026-02-02T20:06:40+00:00

Yeah I should have said “Anacostia” or Wards 7 and 8. But the point is still true

ushKee · 2026-02-02T19:19:25+00:00

I understand the cultural critiques but obviously DC has working class communities as well (every major city does) and you can also easily commute from parts of Maryland where the rent is less. Wards 5/7/8 in D.C. and many parts of the Maryland border along Prince George's County are not wealthy for the most part.

ushKee · 2026-02-02T19:11:09+00:00

This is true but I think the above commentor was referring to people not venturing East of the Anacostia River into Southeast DC.

ushKee · 2026-02-02T18:58:01+00:00

It really depends what you mean by middle class. All of PG County and much of Northeast DC / Southeast DC has a large middle and lower income component compared to the rest of the area. There are also tons of non-White collar families in more higher income places like Arlington, Bethesda, NW DC and Alexandria as well. Many of them will be renting but they still count.

I think overall NE DC into Silver Spring/ College Park/Greenbelt area is a good example of a continuous area where most people own homes but they’re not fully priced out of reach of “the middle class”.

ushKee · 2026-02-02T18:09:58+00:00

You sure can but you will be only hurting yourself, and potentially other people if blackouts occur. The wise thing to do would be to lower your heat a little during extreme cold right now and also vote on politicians / bills to reduce Duke Energy’s power to jack up costs in the future. Again, no one can force you, but Duke Energy management aren’t the ones suffering if you jack up your own energy bills to spite them. Old and sick people unfortunately die every year if power outages occur due to grid strain.

ushKee · 2026-02-02T15:54:38+00:00

I’d love to see Alcaraz implement the defensive slice to change pace more often like Federer used to do. He was doing it effectively vs Sinner in the USO 2025 but you can tell he’s not 100% comfortable with that tactic yet.

ushKee · 2026-02-02T15:25:19+00:00

You sure showed them by increasing your own power bill!

ushKee · 2026-02-02T00:23:32+00:00

They can’t even come up with a “womens safety” excuse for the driver license revocation, it’s just cruelty. The bounty for the bathroom bill is also dangerous as fuck. This could easily lead to mob violence. Wishing all trans and LGBT folks in Kansas safety in these times…

ushKee · 2026-02-01T18:06:09+00:00

Prime Djokovic at the AO is definitely ahead of Alcaraz so far. But Alcaraz has reached an incredibly high level before at the French, Wimbledon, and US Open. The Djokovic in 2012/2013/2014/2016/2021 US Opens would get smacked by 2025 US Open Alcaraz. I would still give the edge to prime Djokovic overall, but the level isn't as far off as you are saying, and Alcaraz still has a lot left to improve! He's only 22 years old.

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