PUDs, what's with power companies? Special edition

So, I'm sitting here watching a really good movie, "Fires On The Plain" (1959), incredible movie. Suddenly, the power goes out. So I'm sitting here, on my laptop, my wireless modem upstairs is on a UPS so I have a while before losing internet. But I just have one question, and I've heard all the excuses.

Now I understand if something blows out. Happens. But, typically its something related to inclement weather; snow, ice, wind, whatever. So when the Power company, Puget Sound Energy in my case, has had all summer, to prepare, actually, has had decades, to prepare, then why, are we still losing power everytime the weather gets bad.

I'm sitting here earlier and I'm so enjoying watching this movie, stormy, horizontal snow, cold, temperature dropped to the teens, why, oh why, then, does the power have to go out. I was enjoying it so much, because I KNEW I was going to lose power. I always lose power in the winter.

The last place I lived, Covington, Washington, had these problems bad, every year. So one year, they cut back the trees. It was ugly. I hated it. I complained. That winter, we lost power, maybe, once, as I remember. I stopped complaining. So if it works for them, why not here? They gave a lame attempt at it, I noticed, but not what I would have cut back.

So, why can't we expect, considering that its freaking 2010, that we can have power on a regular basis, close to 100% of the time? I'm sure there is technology for it.

And so here I sit, in the dark, wondering why I didn't get that whole house generator so I wouldn't be going through this yet again. Well, maybe next year, but I keep thinking that the professionals would take care of it, because, well, hey, it IS their industry, isn't it?

And the same for the Cell phone companies. Why am I always losing cell service? Because they keep selling too many numbers so we over load the circuits? So, stop selling. No? Then GET MORE CIRCUITS! Or, whatever it is, but its your business, make it work. Not some of the time, not most of the time, but nearly ALL of the time.

If you're going to have a business, how about making your product working nearly all the time? And when you are talking about cell phones, but more importantly, power companies, how about 100% up time; with redundancies, protections, backups, on and on and well, how about it?

I've heard all the excuses, but what it comes down to, is you are performing a service. Make it quality.