In the most recent season of SG:1, when Jack gets promoted to Brigadier General, he says "All my life, I been sticking it to the Man. Now I am the Man. I don't think I can be the Man."

In all my life, I don't think I've ever managed to stick it to the Man. Most of my experiences with the Man involve getting it stuck in. And sometimes broken off.

Today... is no exception.

Our story actually starts about five years ago. We were living in a third floor apartment with a crappy AC and 14-foot ceilings. And it was bloody fucking hot that summer. I mean, really... days of 100+ temps in a row. The best thing about the movie Wild, Wild West was that it got me out of the apartment and into an Air Conditioned theater for two hours.

Ok, yes, it was hotter outside - the excuse maintenance always used when we complained about the AC. But honestly, I don't think that 95 degrees in the house indicates a functional air conditioning unit. Do you? I spent at least three trips to the ER, including a short visit to ICU from asthma problems related to overheating.

During this time, Kevin and I were struggling to make ends meet and with the heat being so bad, Clinton had actually put together a power-relief financial aid package to help with electrical costs. I applied for it, since the power bill was something like $190 for one month. I told the power company I was applying for the relief and they said "Ok, you'll probably get it, we'll hold your bill until you hear, ok?" Ok.

Except that we didn't get it. And all the sudden the power company wanted all the power bill for the entire summer. Something like $519. And, while I was at it, they thought I should pay an additional $180 deposit, because we were delinquent on the bill.

Needless to say, things were pretty bad. I managed to get enough of the bill paid to keep our power on, but not much more than that. We were consistantly a month or so behind. Around February of the next year, when I'd just managed to get most of that bill paid off (and the $180 deposit), the power company decided we were just a bad credit risk and insisted on another $210 deposit. (For those of you following along at home, that's $390 in deposits.)

It took a long, long time to recover. I would pay the entire month's bill from two months ago and $20 on the current month's bill, trying to get things paid off. Needless to say, it took a long, long time to get current on the bill.

Finally, around January of 2004, we got current. And stayed current. We haven't had a delinquent bill in over a year. A month or so ago, I started wondering about that deposit.

Today, I found out.

We're not going to get it back as a check or anything... they're just going to deduct our power bill from it until it's all gone. For probably the next four months, I won't have to pay the power bill.

But you know, honestly?

I could have used that $390. I really could have.

FUCK YOU, THE MAN.