Groundbreaking study!

I'm in New Hampshire right now and if you want to take NHEC I'll happily trade you for CMP. NHEC is literally just CMP with 1/8 of the employees needed to keep the service functional.

New Hampshire is simply a hard place to make electricity work. If you put power lines above ground, you expose them to trees, of which we have a ton, that blow over onto the power lines. If you put power lines below ground, you get even more problems. For one, not every area even has smooth enough ground to do this, and in the areas that do, you often have to deal with our higher water table which can flood the underground lines and ruin them over time, and when they break it takes like 10x as long to fix. In addition to that, underground power is too expensive and isn't cost effective for most areas, considering this is a rural state.

For both systems, you also have to realize that they're both more likely to be damaged by nature in this part of the country than really anywhere else. Utilities need to keep crews available for issues like this, but keeping too many line workers on hand would cost an insane amount of money just to bring power back a little quicker during a storm. That's why we often get crews coming up from as far south as Florida to work on our power when a storm comes through. It just takes a lot of time and a lot of people to fix the power once it breaks.

The nature that we enjoy so much here in New Hampshire is also the reason our infrastructure is more unreliable. It's not anybody's fault, just simply the environment we live in.

And below is me being pedantic:

It's not necessarily the grid that's the problem, the grid is doing what it's supposed to. It's the local distribution that is the problem, being streetside power lines.

Maple syrup can grow mold pretty easily, so once it's been opened and exposed to the air, I keep it in the fridge.

It is harder (but not impossible) for mold to survive and grow in cold temperatures, so it'll grow quickly at room temperature in the cupboard, slowly in the fridge, and basically not at all in the freezer. A bottle for me lasts months but not years, so into the fridge it goes!

Now to be fair, that mold isn't toxic, and it's fairly easy to remove by just scraping out what you can, and letting it boil to kill it off and expose the remaining mold spores so you can pick them out. It's just I'd rather not waste my time doing that if I could have just put it in the fridge anyway.

I drive a Chevy Volt 2017. It came with shitty cheap all season tires that just slid all over the road and turned the car into a death trap. I figured it was just bc the car is heavy and FWD only.

I then put Michelin CrossClimate2 tires on the car and it's a night and day difference in drivability. I'm still waiting for some really bad conditions to test them out, but I can drive confidently without slipping in conditions that would have been too dangerous with the old tires.

Also, don't drive like a maniac. Leave space between you and other vehicles, and drive slow. It's amazing how much more dangerous things can get when there are people on the road driving like a*holes.

So yeah, good tires and good technique are the most important driving tips. So long as you have both of those, a cheap car will be fine in the weather.

I actually used Direct Energy for a while, and right now am on their competitor Xoom energy.

When you sign up, you're locked into a rate for 1,2,3 years. This only affects the supply rate, so if eversource raises T+D charges, you'll still be hit with those as they're listed separately on the bill and charged by Eversource, not Direct Energy. If Eversource lowers the supply rates and you want to switch back to them, you'll sometimes have to pay an early termination fee. They're typically not crazy, I think the plan from Xoom I'm on right now is like $50, but something to keep in mind if you're signing up for a longer term. However, when Eversource raises the supply rates, you'll still be locked into your lower rate.

Another thing to note is if you plan on getting solar panels installed, or an electric hot water heater installed (one that is billed separately), you might have issues with one of these plans depending on how the terms are written, so read carefully or give them a call before signing up for anything.

TLDR; it's great so long as you read the terms and conditions and know what you're signing up for.

Go to court, make your case, and pray that the judge sides with you or that the officer fails to show.

in conspiracy theorist voice THAT'S WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANTS YOU TO THINK

Oh my god yes I work at the Target in Somersworth and last Friday the power was out for the whole street. There are like 10 traffic lights the whole route and since nobody was stopping for them, it basically meant there were 10 opportunities for me to get my car wrecked by some idiot flying out into the intersection just because they didn't know you have to stop.

"We're ready for the storm" translates to "it's your fault if you get into a tough spot"