I can't believe that I forgot to mention this in the last post... the last week of October we were without power!
It was a lovely Friday afternoon. I had just gotten home from the grocery store and the pizza store. I opened the refrigerator to put away the food and I noticed the light didn't come on. Weird. So, I checked the lights in the kitchen. Nope. Checked the circuit breakers. Those were fine. Hmmm.... Then we heard a bunch of sirens and watched as several fire trucks pulled into our building. That's not good. The alarms weren't going off on our floor, I figured that was a good thing. I ended up calling the front desk to see what was going on. They didn't know much, so I went to go visit Sonya in the office. Apparently there was an electric arc on the electric buss for that caused a fire and knocked out the power to floors 37 and above. Hm. Not good. Since it was Friday, she went ahead and booked the theater room for us. Ben was able to grill our pizza and we were able to watch Peter Pan on the big screen. The kids were impressed by that! We got a note that night that the soonest the power would be restored would be Monday.
We needed electricity just for a few things.... WiFi and the refrigerator (and an occasional charge for phones and laptops). We bought an extension cord and used the hallway power (that still worked, strangely) to power these things. And we had a fine weekend.
But then Monday happened. The office found out we were using power (and by we I mean everyone else in the building that didn't have power). They left notes saying we couldn't use hallway power and then cut the power. We scrambled and ran around town looking for a generator. We found one that was "as quiet as a conversation." Apparently that conversation is between deaf people who don't realize they are deaf because it was LOUD. We knew we couldn't run that without completely ruining the lives of those below us. So we borrowed some coolers from Bobby and called it good.
No power didn't prove to be too big of an inconvenience. Ben used his phone to hot-spot WiFi for his computer. The front desk would charge our phones. Eating out was a nice treat. We did have hot water, so we could still shower, wash dishes, etc. Laundry was becoming an issue, but my friend Rose came to the rescue and let us have a clothes washing play date. We grilled a lot. Ate meals by candlelight. In some ways, we didn't really miss it!
We got periodic updates. The unit was a custom one, so it had to be fabricated. Across country. It was hopefully going to be finished on Wednesday and over-nighted here and installed on Thursday. Fingers crossed. Well, it did get finished on time! And on Thursday power was restored. It was a huge relief on multiple fronts - mainly because Ben and I were leaving and I hated the thought of leaving Grandma, Grandpa and the kids powerless while we were gone. Phew!
It was a lovely Friday afternoon. I had just gotten home from the grocery store and the pizza store. I opened the refrigerator to put away the food and I noticed the light didn't come on. Weird. So, I checked the lights in the kitchen. Nope. Checked the circuit breakers. Those were fine. Hmmm.... Then we heard a bunch of sirens and watched as several fire trucks pulled into our building. That's not good. The alarms weren't going off on our floor, I figured that was a good thing. I ended up calling the front desk to see what was going on. They didn't know much, so I went to go visit Sonya in the office. Apparently there was an electric arc on the electric buss for that caused a fire and knocked out the power to floors 37 and above. Hm. Not good. Since it was Friday, she went ahead and booked the theater room for us. Ben was able to grill our pizza and we were able to watch Peter Pan on the big screen. The kids were impressed by that! We got a note that night that the soonest the power would be restored would be Monday.
We needed electricity just for a few things.... WiFi and the refrigerator (and an occasional charge for phones and laptops). We bought an extension cord and used the hallway power (that still worked, strangely) to power these things. And we had a fine weekend.
But then Monday happened. The office found out we were using power (and by we I mean everyone else in the building that didn't have power). They left notes saying we couldn't use hallway power and then cut the power. We scrambled and ran around town looking for a generator. We found one that was "as quiet as a conversation." Apparently that conversation is between deaf people who don't realize they are deaf because it was LOUD. We knew we couldn't run that without completely ruining the lives of those below us. So we borrowed some coolers from Bobby and called it good.
No power didn't prove to be too big of an inconvenience. Ben used his phone to hot-spot WiFi for his computer. The front desk would charge our phones. Eating out was a nice treat. We did have hot water, so we could still shower, wash dishes, etc. Laundry was becoming an issue, but my friend Rose came to the rescue and let us have a clothes washing play date. We grilled a lot. Ate meals by candlelight. In some ways, we didn't really miss it!
We got periodic updates. The unit was a custom one, so it had to be fabricated. Across country. It was hopefully going to be finished on Wednesday and over-nighted here and installed on Thursday. Fingers crossed. Well, it did get finished on time! And on Thursday power was restored. It was a huge relief on multiple fronts - mainly because Ben and I were leaving and I hated the thought of leaving Grandma, Grandpa and the kids powerless while we were gone. Phew!
