the power guy's power play

[itsmecindi]

the power guy\'s power play

There's not a worse feeling in the world as far as I'm concerned, than going to sleep in a nice cool, almost cold house, all snuggled under a comforter, with a fan blowing full blast on you, and then waking up under the same comforter all sticky and sweaty, not really sure how long you have been baking under that layer of batting, no fan, no sound, and the sun poking you in the eye like it has nothing better to do, and then the awful realization hits you. The power is off. Again!

I don't wake up well anyway, it usually takes about fifteen minutes before I make any sense at all, so I stumbled into the kitchen, stubbornly following my routine, and punched the power button on the computer to fire it up.

As I stood there staring stupidly at the little circle where the green 'on' button was supposed to light up, it never occured to me that with the power off, as it so obviously was, that the computer might not work, so I pushed it about six more times before my brain finally kicked in and reminded me that the hampsters were on strike.

I picked up the phone to call the power company, (I know the number by heart and it is the one thing that will come to my fuzzy brain when nothing else will) and the power guy picked up. I call him the power guy because around here the power seems to go off at just about the same time, every time, and I always seem to get the same guy when I call.

"Blah blah blah maintenence, can I help you?" Ah yes, that familiar voice.

"Yes, my fan's not...I mean....there's no....no power...no electricity."

"Let me guess, just got up did you?"

"Ha ha ha" with no enthusiasm, "yeah, how could you tell?"

"You sound just like my wife....." then a sudden intake of breath. "IS this my wife??"

"No...no, this is not your wife, YOUR frozen foods are safe. When is the power going to be back on?"

"You on E Main?"

"Yep"

"Well... we're hoping for some time around three."

I gave that about fifteen seconds to sink in and then the tantrum started. I was actually jumping up and down, and whining.

"You are NOT telling me that! Please tell me that I am not going to be without power ALL DAY!" Bounce bounce bounce, dishes rattling in the cabinet, grasping the remote, still not willing to believe that it was useless to me until almost supper time.

These horrible thoughts went through my mind of spending a day with no a/c and no t v and no internet, and last but not least, being on a well, no water. I was working myself up for a major tizzy. I opened my mouth to really heap it on the power guy when all of a sudden he said...

"three, two, one....."

There was two or three seconds of nothing, and then the world around me grew bright and the television came on tuned to channel eight news and I started jumping up and down out of sheer joy this time.

"It's on..... isn't it?" He asked, chuckling.

"Yes, and it's WONDERFUL! Thank you so much!"

"Sorry about that little joke there, heh heh, I kinda couldn't resist. They just told me that they had the problem fixed and that it should be on any second. It was just pure luck that it came on at that exact moment, heh heh heh."

"Yes you are a very funny guy. Ha ha. But I don't care because I have P O W E R!" I mashed the volume button on the remote just because I could, punched the power button on the computer and sighed, and decided not to hold a grudge against the man. After all, he is the power guy, he brings good things to life. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[F350Lawman]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

Great post, very well written and funny. I'd give it an A+

I have been dodging the bullet without a generator at my place for 3 years now. The first real outage and I will be racing all the others so my horses have water from the well! One time we had flooding trouble and I got the LAST pump so I will be scratching and clawing for agenerator I am sure.

So far only dumb luck has saved us, we have many outages but nothing over a few hours so far. My emergency plan is to go down to the reservoir (1/4 mile) and using my portable pump and a power converter fill a 55 gallon drum on the back of the truck.

Could make for an interesting conversation with the Village Police, but hey it's an emergency. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[itsmecindi]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

Thank you lawman. We do have a generator, it's right out there in the shed, but so far, like you, our outages rarely last more than a few hours. I think the longest was eight hours, but unless we feel certain that it could be off twelve hours or more, we don't drag it out. Ironically enough, the one and only time our power was off for days, instead of hours, was when we lived in the city.

We were without power a full weekend once, for no apparent reason, and the worst part of it was instead of being truthful, they kept reassuring us it would be on soon, be on soon, toward the end I got very nasty. All I wanted to know was whether my food was going to ruin. That's when we bought our generator. We were still reading the manual when the power came back on. Grrrr.

 

[Slamfire]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

Our longest outage was 9 DAYS! I don't know what you'd do if you had an ice storm. I spent 30 years in the power industry, and would estimate the shortest outage will probably run about 1.5 hours. The field crew has to find the place where the wires are down before they can start. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[F350Lawman]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

We were still reading the manual when the power came back on. Grrrr.

Now you reminded me of something else. The first winter we were here I was at work and hadn't heard from my wife all day. I got home and found out the power was out for several hours. It was freezing so I start worrying about frozen pipes, no heat, no water, no phone (all we had were cordless) I go out to Walmart and get about 20 gallons of water, 3 flashlights, a zillion batteries, 2 kerosene heaters, kerosene container, 5 gallons of kerosene, emergency candles, food, standard wall phone, etc.

Now we're all ready...... I spent about $300 but I saved the day.....SO the hero gets home and as I cross the threshold the lights pop on!

All me and the wife could do was laugh.

At least I have heaters and a phone that works without electric now /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[knucklehead]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

Gee - musta been the fog of the waking hour - hope that isn't the normal interface mode with utilities or other businesses. We're just humans, even though some humans have no work ethic....or maybe they're just busy trying to get the job done. I'd say he humored you quite well - you weren't that bad, comparatively.

Don't let anyone tell you utility employees get priority when it comes to restoration, either. Our record is two weeks even, in January 1998. No woodstove, borrowed generator. Did not run it at night, so the house got down in the 40's. We wouldn't go to a hotel and let everything freeze. It was easy not to whine when we had 800,000 pepole in the same boat, though. I think that tally got down around 50,000 before we got hooked up. Got a new entrance panel out of the deal, though. And a 6500 watt generator, half paid for by the insurance company - all because the maple out front took the meter off the wall.

I enjoy your stories, I'm just sorta pinging you in jest about your phone manners. Sorta.

 

[Whiskey]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

Cindi:

Ain't life in Florida grand during rainy seasion, I for one just LOVE losing my power at least a couple times a week and always when I get home from work with the afternoon rains.

Whiskey

 

[Whiskey]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

Cindi:

Ain't it kind of funny that it takes lighting (electric) to knock out my electric...just seem's kind of weird or maybe it's just me??????????

Whiskey

 

[itsmecindi]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

Mark you have to remember that we are in a very small town. I was talking to a lady at the bank the other day. I made a deposit, along with about twenty other customers on Saturday morning and none of us got credit for our deposits. So when I checked my balance it was negative 492.56.

I didn't freak out until she told me it might be two days before they could get it straightened out. I said... so how'm I 'sposed to balance my blankety checkbook?

Oooopps, sorry! I'm sorry, that just slipped out. She didn't say anything for a minute then she said...

"I'm tellin' your mama, you said a bad word!"

Everybody knows everybody out here.

Whiskey.... I swear that the weight of the dew on the electric lines is what does it.

 

[Gringo_Viejo]

Re: the power guy\'s power play

Out here we claim that we get an outage every time a coyote pees on a power pole.