GOING POWER-FREE IS OVERRATED.
So on Friday night, a truly vicious wave of thunderstorms passed through the area, and of course, the power went out.
Which sucked beyond the telling of it.
It was out for about thirty-six hours of total misery. I am seriously rethinking my stance on the zombie apocalypse.
Because living without electricity fucking SUCKS ASS.
The worst part was calling the electric company for a status report on the outage, and hearing that the estimated date of service restoration was NEXT SATURDAY.
I actually started to cry. I'm kind of ashamed of myself for that.
Even worse was that I'd scheduled vacation time for Monday and Tuesday, figuring that I could be at home, happily sucking up the air conditioning, not sweating like a barnyard animal. I could've stayed at my mom's for that.
It was such a relief when I suddenly heard the soothing hum of the refrigerator kick in at around nine on Saturday night. Lights and TV soon followed, and I was practically singing the Hallelujah Chorus as I scurried around, resetting clocks and timers.
I found out later that there are 24 electrical grids in Cumberland county, and 22 of them went down for various reasons. Fortunately, living near the airport means that our neighborhood's power was restored relatively quickly-- it was the third priority for restoration, after police / fire / emergency services and then the hospital. That's a pretty lucky break, and certainly one I'm glad broke my way.
Here's a map.
Any way, so all things considered, the fact that the AC is not actually blowing cold air at the moment seems like a kind of petty concern. The guy who does that stuff is coming tomorrow afternoon to check it out . . . I would not be surprised to find out that the unit has finally given up the ghost. I hope that's not going to be the news, but I'm braced for it.
On Wednesday, I have to head back up to Mom's and pick her up to go to Aunt Jinny and Claire's for a "mini-barbecue". I'm not sure what, exactly, that entails, but whatever.
I'm already wishing I'd scheduled more time off.
Vacations never last long enough, have you ever noticed that?
Which sucked beyond the telling of it.
It was out for about thirty-six hours of total misery. I am seriously rethinking my stance on the zombie apocalypse.
Because living without electricity fucking SUCKS ASS.
The worst part was calling the electric company for a status report on the outage, and hearing that the estimated date of service restoration was NEXT SATURDAY.
I actually started to cry. I'm kind of ashamed of myself for that.
Even worse was that I'd scheduled vacation time for Monday and Tuesday, figuring that I could be at home, happily sucking up the air conditioning, not sweating like a barnyard animal. I could've stayed at my mom's for that.
It was such a relief when I suddenly heard the soothing hum of the refrigerator kick in at around nine on Saturday night. Lights and TV soon followed, and I was practically singing the Hallelujah Chorus as I scurried around, resetting clocks and timers.
I found out later that there are 24 electrical grids in Cumberland county, and 22 of them went down for various reasons. Fortunately, living near the airport means that our neighborhood's power was restored relatively quickly-- it was the third priority for restoration, after police / fire / emergency services and then the hospital. That's a pretty lucky break, and certainly one I'm glad broke my way.
Here's a map.
Any way, so all things considered, the fact that the AC is not actually blowing cold air at the moment seems like a kind of petty concern. The guy who does that stuff is coming tomorrow afternoon to check it out . . . I would not be surprised to find out that the unit has finally given up the ghost. I hope that's not going to be the news, but I'm braced for it.
On Wednesday, I have to head back up to Mom's and pick her up to go to Aunt Jinny and Claire's for a "mini-barbecue". I'm not sure what, exactly, that entails, but whatever.
I'm already wishing I'd scheduled more time off.
Vacations never last long enough, have you ever noticed that?