Lights out.
Sep. 12th, 2009 03:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaLast night at 11:20 the power went out. I had just finished pumping milk - thank heavens - I still had the bottle of milk in my hand. I quickly stowed it away, grabbed a flashlight, and went to call the power company.
The automated emergency line took my report. Usually it has something to say about how long the outage is estimated to last, but not this time. Looking out the window, I could see Maryland General Hospital all lit up a block away, but on our street there was nothing. No streetlights, no house lights.
The phone rang. It was a real human calling me back from BGE. She said that they didn't have any information about an outage in my area and why didn't I go down and try throwing my breaker. She would wait if I wanted her to.
"It's not just us," I told her. "The whole street is dark."
"Well, you're the only one who called in. I can go ahead and send someone out, but if it turns out to be a problem with your equipment there will be an $80 charge for the service call."
"Send someone out to our house? It's not just us!"
"Well, you're our only starting point."
I told her not to send anyone unless we called back. I didn't really want to wait up past midnight for a service call.
After I hung up, we heard sirens and saw flashes of colored lights outside. We jammed on our shoes and went outside. A BGE pickup truck sped by, orange lights flashing. and rounded the corner on to Read Street. I followed it. Read Street was jammed full of equipment - at least four line trucks. Guys in hard hats stood around in clumps.
Michael approached one of them and came back to report: "It's a planned outage. They're doing some work."
"Okay, let's go to bed." As I undressed, the phone rang. It was the lady from BGE. She had just figured out that it was a planned outage. We should have gotten a letter, she told Michael. The power would be off for eight hours.
That was nearly ten hours ago. We still don't have any electricity. I'm starting to fret about the food. Also, I'm hungry. Michael lit the stove with our grill lighter to make me some tea, but we don't want to open the fridge to get out anything to eat.
I'm writing this on my laptop, but we don't have any wireless to post it.
Later: I called BGE at 9:30. The power should be back on in about an hour, they said. I scrounged some bread and cookies from the pantry. Unbelievably, Alex is still asleep - when she wakes up, I'll take the kids out for breakfast.
The thing about living in a row house is that it can be dark inside even in the daytime. Our living room is a center room, and it doesn't get a whole lot of natural light.
11:00 Still no power. Coming back from breakfast we saw four or five line trucks arrayed along the alley behind our house, basket arms extended and full of linemen. Called BGE again and was assured that we'd have power by 11:30. Uh huh. I asked if there would be any compensation to customers and she reacted with total incomprehension. I wasn't being charged for the power I wasn't receiving, so why did I think I had any claim on BGE beyond that?
If it was storm damage or some other disaster, I would totally understand. But this is scheduled work.
I wonder how long the power would have to be out before I would stop automatically flipping the switch when I walked into a dark room.
Final update: When I left to take the kids to a birthday party at 12:15, the power was still out. According to Michael, it finally came on at 1:50, went off again at 2:15, and finally came on for good at 2:30.
Unfortunately, in the interim Alex overheard me discussing with a neighbor what action I planned to take against BGE if my freezer stash of breastmilk thawed. Now she is asking inconvenient questions like "Mommy, what's firebombing?"
The automated emergency line took my report. Usually it has something to say about how long the outage is estimated to last, but not this time. Looking out the window, I could see Maryland General Hospital all lit up a block away, but on our street there was nothing. No streetlights, no house lights.
The phone rang. It was a real human calling me back from BGE. She said that they didn't have any information about an outage in my area and why didn't I go down and try throwing my breaker. She would wait if I wanted her to.
"It's not just us," I told her. "The whole street is dark."
"Well, you're the only one who called in. I can go ahead and send someone out, but if it turns out to be a problem with your equipment there will be an $80 charge for the service call."
"Send someone out to our house? It's not just us!"
"Well, you're our only starting point."
I told her not to send anyone unless we called back. I didn't really want to wait up past midnight for a service call.
After I hung up, we heard sirens and saw flashes of colored lights outside. We jammed on our shoes and went outside. A BGE pickup truck sped by, orange lights flashing. and rounded the corner on to Read Street. I followed it. Read Street was jammed full of equipment - at least four line trucks. Guys in hard hats stood around in clumps.
Michael approached one of them and came back to report: "It's a planned outage. They're doing some work."
"Okay, let's go to bed." As I undressed, the phone rang. It was the lady from BGE. She had just figured out that it was a planned outage. We should have gotten a letter, she told Michael. The power would be off for eight hours.
That was nearly ten hours ago. We still don't have any electricity. I'm starting to fret about the food. Also, I'm hungry. Michael lit the stove with our grill lighter to make me some tea, but we don't want to open the fridge to get out anything to eat.
I'm writing this on my laptop, but we don't have any wireless to post it.
Later: I called BGE at 9:30. The power should be back on in about an hour, they said. I scrounged some bread and cookies from the pantry. Unbelievably, Alex is still asleep - when she wakes up, I'll take the kids out for breakfast.
The thing about living in a row house is that it can be dark inside even in the daytime. Our living room is a center room, and it doesn't get a whole lot of natural light.
11:00 Still no power. Coming back from breakfast we saw four or five line trucks arrayed along the alley behind our house, basket arms extended and full of linemen. Called BGE again and was assured that we'd have power by 11:30. Uh huh. I asked if there would be any compensation to customers and she reacted with total incomprehension. I wasn't being charged for the power I wasn't receiving, so why did I think I had any claim on BGE beyond that?
If it was storm damage or some other disaster, I would totally understand. But this is scheduled work.
I wonder how long the power would have to be out before I would stop automatically flipping the switch when I walked into a dark room.
Final update: When I left to take the kids to a birthday party at 12:15, the power was still out. According to Michael, it finally came on at 1:50, went off again at 2:15, and finally came on for good at 2:30.
Unfortunately, in the interim Alex overheard me discussing with a neighbor what action I planned to take against BGE if my freezer stash of breastmilk thawed. Now she is asking inconvenient questions like "Mommy, what's firebombing?"
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 09:19 pm (UTC)Oh dear. Sorry, but this made me giggle. I hope everything is ok and that the power stays on, but... oh, dear.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 01:19 am (UTC)Glad it all worked out with no melting. Geez.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 10:41 pm (UTC)The most infuriating thing about dealing with customer service was that they showed no understanding of why we didn't trust each progressively later estimate of when they were going to restore service. "It'll be back on at 11:30, and it's past 11 now, so why are you upset?"
no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 11:00 pm (UTC)I'd check with some neighbors and see if any of them got a letter. If they didn't, I'd call the electric company and tell them that somebody obviously dropped the ball because customers were not given advance notification, and the outage lasted over 150% of the planned duration.
I'm glad nothing thawed.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 11:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 03:30 am (UTC)A...planned...outage? For that many hours? On a summer's night?
no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-15 02:07 am (UTC)It was pretty cool to see all the trucks lined up in the alley behind our block, and I think she liked seeing that. She's less infatuated with utility trucks these days, although she'll still enjoy going out to see something unusual.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-15 08:26 am (UTC)