Thursday, March 08, 2007

I'm back, sort of...

The power company has been replacing power poles along our block this week, and after enduring brownout after brownout the other day I unplugged almost everything electronic, plus whatever else I wasn't using. About the time the brownouts seemed to go away, a fellow came to our door to let us know about a three-hour scheduled outage. At that point I decided to enjoy watching guys work in cherry-pickers and marvel at the skill of crane operators, etc., rather than worry about my electrical stuff. So I unplugged stuff again and split my time between watching guys risk their necks way above the ground and digging in and doing low-tech stuff and chores I'd been putting off.

The cranes are gone, the power seems to be steady (knock wood), and now I have several days worth of work to get caught up on, and I've got several offline projects underway...

Side note: When the fellow came to the door to tell us about the outage planned for the next morning from 6 to 9, I thanked him for the info, and he looked at me kind of funny, as if he doesn't get many thanks for delivering that kind of news. That's too bad.

I'm sure the power company knows that losing power for that length of time might mean more than inconvenience for some people. For instance, until quite recently for us it would have meant using oxygen tanks until the power came back on and we could use the oxygen concentrator again. As it was, my husband opted to go without extra oxygen for that length of time since he's generally strong enough to do that these days, without his oxygen levels plummeting. That's not to say I didn't have a tank ready and the oxygen meter on hand and didn't, like, you know, check on him now and then, as he slept. (Sorry, guys. It's a wife thing. Sometimes we can't help it.)

Besides which, silly me, I think simple manners require that you thank people for going out of their way on your behalf.

Anyway, I appreciate that they came to the door to make sure we knew what we would be up against. Not that we aren't prepared for that kind of emergency anyway, but it was nice to make sure we had everything lined up. Thanks again, OTEC.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kathryn, it's surprising how the little guy in the power company truck can be all important in crisis situations. A lot of these are pretty nice guys, too.

Your courtesy went a long way in this case I suspect.

We have friends with the power companies. What would scare you (perhaps not! after your medical insurance post) is that politics often becomes as important for that company as keeping your lights on. Ask California!

This husband has fought for years to make the industry more stable and reliable, but there are market forces (make the buck, or save it; again ask California) and govt. bodies, esp. the Federal, who do their best to disrupt things. Yep, if you see de-regulation proposed in your headlines, know you are headed for trouble, or so our friend tells us all the time. (He told us first about Enron years before the collapse.)

It's certainly good to hear about your husband's health. God bless him!