Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative, Inc. Back to Business

Tallapoosa River Electric Company, Inc.  or crack, bzzz, flicker, hmmmm, pfffft

Still Here

Trust me. Still here but with a few more important things to do. 3 more weeks till you can resume feeling my pain. :)

Just a quick one. I have no time!!!!

And just another day in the universe of those guys who run things. I had said something nice about Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative (TREC) on my TREC Member Facebook page. I had friendly people over from TREC to tell me that I was doing everything right from an electricity savings perspective. I asked them tons of questions and they were polite on each one. Things were on a roll for TREC. This is a free service and they seemed to handle it totally competantly and with the utmost respect even though I showed up to the door in my pajamas. :)  But.... all has changed.

One phone call later. Seriously, I was just following up to the strangest looking diagram with barely readable instructions with no explanations as to why. It was like trying to do a science project without my father. :)

This completely acceptable rudeness (in response to my own intrinsic rudeness) has spurred me on. Look in the future for TREC TUMBLR and a dedicated TREC FLICKR because currently I just load the graphics onto my own FLICKR account. Graphics from FLICKR make up a goodly portion of those indexed in Google. I'm looking into Reddit and other social media sites for expanding coverage of this and all my blogs. It is good to keep on top of the thing. Currently though, my time is being exhausted from election stuff. In a little over a month I will say goodbye to doing so many political graphics and get to my normal life. Try coming up with something new to say every day that might be important enough for people to share.  Gees. :)    

But as this too shall pass, I will find myself with extra time to TREK around a universe of possiblities.

I don't think I have ever said it on this particular blog. Social media is rapidly changing the structure of society. The latest most obvious case was where the billionaires had basically completely purchased all the media outlets as per one subject, the election. Thanks to the Supreme Court, they really thought they had it. HOWEVER, the one event that cost but average dollars eclipsed the whole purchased lot of them.  This occcured through modern social type media sourcing technology, a secret video, and an old media outlet turned online outlet "Mother Jones" and away she went.

How many billions of dollars went down the hole to purchase commercials eclipsed by the online push of one item? Yes, from Chick Fil A to the recent incident at Kroger's, there will soon be a way we communicate with each other. We will hold companies accountable for what they do. It will rival those attempts by the companies themselves to frame their businesses through advertising and will no doubt eventaually overrun these attempts.

Good service. Reliable service. Friendly service. We have a lot to look forward to and thank Facebook, thank social media.

That Moment When...

 

Another Tallapoosa River Cooperative Member's Page production, in close association with Tallapoosa River Cooperative Member's Blog.

That moment when you realize, in old episode of Mannix, that the electrical posts going by in a car chase look ten years ahead of the one's providing you power.

I Have A Generator Coming In Tuesday Just For The Rain

I'm the Guy You Flipped Off :)

Lets Roll the Graphics, I'm indexed! part 2

 

Did I mention Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative ?

Looks Like I'm indexed on Google, Let's Roll!

Tallapoosa Electric Coop Cooperative Electricity Tallapoosa Lower Alabama Monopoly Memes Tallapoosa Electric Cooperative Coop Tallapoosa

Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative photos. These are the memories of your lives.

Opelika by Candlelight

When God said "Let there be light," he was not referring to the modern electric light-bulb.  Everyone knows he was referring to the candles of our founding fathers.  Candlelight is ageless, and better, makes you look a little less aged.  We at Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative know this stunning fact.  When the lights go out, 9 months later....  By the way, Obama can kiss our ass, too.  We built this Coop ourselves and owe nothing to no one.  We may not be small businessmen, but we certainly act small.

Tallapoosa River Electric Co-op Presents Our Series of Films for Kids

One of the many public services we like to perform is in the provision of films that teachers can run while the kids fall asleep in class. We remember our childhoods very well and always welcomed the down time of a good "Alagasco" film. "Attack of the Branch Dude" is part of a series of films to explain to children why the lights go out. We wouldn't say they are exactly acts of God, but definately and positively not acts of Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative. Next time the the lights go out kids can imagine the Branch Dude ripping up our lines and our heros of the repair crew fighting him with whatever that stuff was that they put on those Auburn trees. But I digress. Having not seen this feature, I don't exactly know why they have chosen me to write this review. Sometimes I think they do not know what is going on around here.... to be truthful.

Tallapoosa River Electric Tree Contest

This tree is part of a series forming the letter "C" from TREC. The other three trees are part of our brand new contest "Find the T R and E in the Trees." Win one of three different prizes including a years supply of batteries and flashlights, a backup generator, and  surge protectors for all the appliances in your house. Employees not eligible. Void where prohibited.

Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative - ad 1

Walking through your darkened neighborhood during the summer during a blackout may seem fun when there is really not much else to do in your rapidly warming house. But, be careful out there. Notice how this man is outlined by his prepared neighbor's blazing lights. Be smart, with the number of outages we throw at you, it is highly advisable that you be that neighbor with the generator rather than the target this man makes for the criminals taking advantage of the dark. We at Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative really care.

Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative: Getting it Right the First Time

At TREC we have come to recognize over the years that just one sleepy call center worker can cause a world of trouble. Basically, we have made it simple now to field those calls that come at such a rapid pace when there are outages. "Knowing who to blame is half the problem," as our call center director likes to say.

Smokin' Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative

Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative parody.

Join us.

The Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative once a year meeting is upon us, and boy do they have give aways! If you thought their main mission was to provide you with competant consistent electric power with every ounce of their being, think again. They want you happy! Fortune cookie once say there are many paths to happiness.

When I was a youngster, the politicians had big BBQ cookouts to woo the voters. It was expected. I don't know how many plates of free food I got from George C. Wallace.

Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative does much of the same. It's good old boy stuff, but it doesn't really do much for me when the electricity is out. Similarly George C. Wallace didn't do much for me as a politician. I encourage you to go, eat their food, knowing that really all this luxury and giveaway stuff is adding directly to your bill, and tell someone you don't like it. If you are having problems with your power, talk it up.

If not, well, you are luckier than I....

Either way, if you are on Facebook think about liking our page http://www.facebook.com/#!/TallapoosaRiverElectricCoopMembersPage

We enjoy a bit of parody. We enjoy a bit a tweaking. We don't enjoy numerous power outages.

Coop, Co-Op, or Corporation?

Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative, Inc. is not a just a coop really. I mean it doesn't have any chickens in it that I know of. Though there was a time when they were sued for killing quite a number of a farmer's chicks back in the 50's I think it was. The farmer won. It must have been a massive amount of money for him. The Coop mounted up a loss in court to a farmer. That must have taken some mismanagement. They weren't providing the right amount of volts. Sound familar? :)

These are all small things. A farmer, even as a single member of the coop, really doesn't mean much to a coop but sometimes small unimportant people make a difference. I feel like if I try to do almost anything in life, almost ANYTHING, I can get it done. It might take years and years, but I can get probably get an achievable thing done if I obsess enough. :)

I've always liked Monk. Great show.

So...

Co-op or Coop or COOP may refer to

• A cooperative organization, association, or company owned by its members
• A pen or enclosure for birds, such as a chicken coop, or slang for a prison

A company owned by members is a coop. Also slang for a prison is a coop. Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative, Inc. is indeed a coop, in more ways than one. If you buy a property inside the area of TREC you will learn rapidly about the odd slang definition of the word "coop."

Currently I have no Internet. That isn't TREC's problem THIS time. That is another company's problem... well unless some TREC personell acidentally cut the line when the were doing some digging next to my house. Who knows? There is a brand new recently positioned box that says "electric" on it next to my house. It looks either new or they just uncovered the mud on top.

I doubt they cut my line. But I still post. I'm just obsessed, like Monk. I have a goal in mind. It would not cost them a penny. Alas, it is a goal I will probably never reach. Yet, just, possibly... I mean the Supreme Court decision yesterday. Achievable things are possible.

Uncooperative

Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative, Inc. has an odd name. I usually don't think of a co-op as being a corporation. This co-op has all the earmarks of being a corporation. It includes the "Inc." behind it's name. It makes you wonder a little. I'm not sure what the status of this corporation is, really. They are decidedly a monopoly. When I said I was not sure how safe the power was, and that they did not answer that question in my letter, he said something like "Well, we'll turn it off right now if you believe you are unsafe or that is it going to cause a fire." I said, "Well I'm asking you whether it is safe or unsafe. If you feel it is unsafe, please come immediately and turn off my power. All I need is for you to put in writing that my power is unsafe by your judgement." He changed the subject.

Someone that is this smug about his company knows he does not have any competition. If I paid over a hundred dollars a month for any other service, I'm sure they would take me very seriously. They take me seriously over monthly billing that is far less than a hundred dollars a month.

According to the company, my only course of action is in contacting the board. I will write a long entry on that experience later. The board is elected by members like me.

I'm still working through all this stuff. AND it is boring. But, I have one statement that is very important to get out to a public forum.

If you are moving into an any area, ask who your power company will be. The city I live in, Opelika AL, is actually serviced by three different companies, but each homeowner has no choice. Could the wires be hooked together and shared. Heck yes. They are within blocks. Imagine the redundancy that would create. There would be no power outages in all likelihood. When one was down, another would take over. This too, I will blog about in the future as I research this more carefully. Boring? Heck yeah!

So, if you are chosing between houses and one house has Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative, I would suggest you make a very careful decision. My experience has not been good.

I was thinking of calling this Ata Boy Brownout, but I think that was just too obscure. :)