MGE

The biggest news out of City Council was that Micheal Clark agreed with me which put me outside my comfort zone a little.  I will have to say something controversial to rectify this situation - two worlds colliding and all that!  :-)

More on this in a bit. 

I attended the annual MGE Stockholder meeting yesterday.  Not that I have any stock in MGE but my father in law does and I was invited along.  I have finally become a 1%er. Actually I think I was in the 1% of the 1%  IN AGE.  Seriously, I was probably 15 years younger then the average person attending and just getting into the Marriott was a thrill ride.

The older generation was all over the place randomly walking in front of any moving vehicle they could find as other vehicles were trying to park their cars between the lines with very little success. 

There were buses transporting people 200 feet to the door where 20 people with wheel chairs were waiting and lines for other people that had misplaced their tags. 

All this was happening in a slow motion molasses like crawl.  Picture Pac Man in slow motion.  Once we entered the huge room we were escorted to the ALMOST front row.  The only table in front of us was maned by the CEO mucky mucks which seriously all looked alike.  If I backed up my chair fast  I could have knocked the head dude. TABLE 7 BABY!!  

So we sat down and I got up to try a muffin which was the talk of the car and we had a choice of 3 kinds of Blueberry muffins and 3 kinds of bran muffins that all looked exactly the same. . but I agree, they were good.

So then the presentation starts and there is something about voting for directors and blah blah blah and then the microphone is handed over to a new guy to talk about how great MGE is.  

WAIT - isn't that the SAME guy? is he clone? I'm starting to get freaked out a little. 

So Clone #2 is talking about an annual return of 22% in the last 5 years for MGE and there are some pretty cool graphs that our Water Czar would be proud of.  

Finally the question and answer period starts. One question is about all the protesters as we entered the parking lot. 

WELL - it seems 90% of the people attending had no clue there were protesters which is not surprising since 90% did not see the slow movers "darting" in front of their cars either.  There was a question about the Tesla battery and how that would effect MGE and the answer was a vague "we like all technology, new technology is always good" which coming from a clone seems to be the correct way it was programmed to answer that question.  

Somewhere around Table 800 there is applause for some unknown reason on this answer or perhaps Clarence finally made it back from the bathroom.  One of the two.   

The meeting is over and food is served which was pretty good even though it was full of vegetables  BUT, it was actually very good, but nothing will ever beat the Filet Mignon literally the size of my head that WE Energies served us when I went to that meeting. But I digress. 

It seemed I was the only one that ate most of my lunch as there were plastic baggies at each table and most people ate a nibble and then stuffed the entire plate into plastic bags for later. 

But then the real excitement started.  The exiting of the conference room which was sort of like watching door gravity take hold.  Each attendee was given two LED light bulbs (I'm pretty sure they got the idea from Columbus Water and Light on that one)  and a really cool pen. 

I made the mistake of needing the bathroom from all the coffee I drank (fantastic coffee - I had forgotten how good REAL coffee is - not the crummy Kurig coffee). The problem came when I tried to leave the bathroom and the crush came.  It seems everybody knows everybody and no matter where you are it is always the perfect time to stop and talk even it if just outside the bathroom door. 

You can't just tell two 90 years old's with walkers to "move it buddy" as they probably jumped out of a plane in WWII with bullets whizzing over their head to save your ass so . . . .

MEANWHILE - one of the people I was with has reentered the conference room in search for more pens because they were so cool and he forgot his. (Aldermen Clark saw how cool they were last night as I played with mine during the Sewer Utility Financial Report which I had seen once already a few days earlier).  

He came out empty handed and disappointed as some other guy was always a table ahead of him and had a dozen in his had. 

I drove the group home safely.  

I reality it was a very very good event and I gotta say it was handled very very well for something catering to so many elderly.  I'm not sure if the Guinnes Book of Records has this but the combined age of the attendees had to be near 100,000.    

And that is as much of the story I am willing to tell. OH - there is more LOL 

Well done MGE.

SO - I'm all typed out and have things I need to do today - I'll get the the good news City Council tomorrow.  At least the Council of the Whole was good and good for the citizens of Columbus. 

BTW - I talked to more people about the 96 gallon garbage bins.  Most say that size is ridiculous for weekly garbage but good for recycling. 

Warmer weather coming - last day of non-warm. Hang in there.

Rod