All the power went out in my neighborhood around 11:30 this morning. This happens every month or three around me, which is one of the reasons I just bought one of these. ($85 for the next few days at Costco Online.)
Around Noon, I was wondering what the Department of Water & Power hotline had to say about when service might be restored. Usually when you dial the number I have, you get a recording. This time, I got a person. I asked if they had any idea when the juice might be on and a man said, "No idea. We have men out in the field checking but so far, they have no idea what caused it. If you do, let us know."
I said, "Yeah, well, maybe I'll get out my cleats and start climbing poles." We both chuckled and I hung up, then spent the next few hours writing something on my battery-powered laptop and going through Internet Withdrawal.
Around 2:40, I had to decide if I was going to drive somewhere to run an errand. With the car in the garage and the power off, this involves crawling over the hood to disconnect the automatic garage door opener. I decided to call again and see if they had an Estimated Time of Electricity. The same guy answered the phone and just as he did, all the lights came on here.
"Oh, sorry," I said. "Just as I was about to ask you when the power would be restored, the power was restored."
I guess he recognized my voice from the earlier call. He said, "And we could have done it a lot sooner if you'd climbed a few poles and helped out."