More
Fun and Games with the Electric Company
Sunday afternoon the power went
down. Here we go again.
Living where we do, Helene and I
make a point of keeping a phone that doesn’t need a power unit. I called the electric company to report the
outage and was told according to their records (by recording of course) that
the power had been out since 9:40 PM and they expected power to be restored by
6:00 PM. They added that for more
information I should go to their website, less call it w.cluesess.
Helene and I were still discussing
the electric company thinking the power had been out since the night before when
the phone rang and it was my buddy, the electric company recording, telling me
that according to their records the power had gone down at 4:21 PM (much better)
and that including us 2100 customers were affected. They still expected power to come back on by
6:00 PM. Once again they ended by saying that for more information I should go
to their website, w.cluesess.
Normally
I would fire up the generator, but since the surgery I’m not suppose to lift
more than ten pounds until further notice.
I’m not sure how resistance on the recoil starter is, but since I have
been known to move the 100 pound plus generator pulling it I figured we had
best call Matt.
About twenty minutes later the
lights came back on – for all of thirty seconds. A minute later my friend, the recording was
back on the phone telling me that according to their records the power was back
on. If we were still without power I
should call them at the following number.
I did so and went through the normal endless menu only to be told there
were now some 1800 people without power, and now their records showed us to be among
them. They still estimated we would have
power back by 6:00 PM. Again I was
advised that for more information I should go to their website, w.clueless.
This was repeated at least twice
more with the only change being the estimate for the lights coming back on
being pushed back to 8:00PM. Of course
we were advised that for more information I should go to their website, w.clueless.
This was when we made a
disappointing discovery. Usually I switch
out the gasoline in the generator every three months. But combination of drastically reduced
income, sky rocketing fuel prices and uncovered surgery cost I haven’t been
changing fuel. This is my bad, but it
meant this time around we were actually at the mercy of the electric
company. What a revolting development.
Then two things happened. The lights popped on for another thirty
second teaser, and my friend the recording called to tell us we were among 1400
people without power, and they were now guessing the lights might be back on by
10:00 PM. Again, for more information I
should go to their website, w.clueless.
This was the last straw. I do not worship air-conditioning as much as
most, but these days I have surgical incisions healing. I’m not sure how what effect a night in the
sauna we call Central Texas would have on them.
I could also see that Helene was suffering. For the first time since we came to HomePlace
we bugged out due to a lack of air conditioning.
I will close with a challenge to the
fool whispers among my readers. Do any
of you feel up to the challenge of explaining to the electric company – I imagine
you can pick one at random- the problem of “for more information go to their
website, w.clueless.”
Be
prepared to talk slowly and use little words.
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