The Lights are On, But Sometimes No One is Home

The other day, King and I were both home in the morning. I had just stumbled out of bed, and was beginning my day by attacking the mountain of laundry that was attempting to push it's way out of the laundry room and into the dining area. King was working from home, on the computer. The power flickered off. Then on. Then off. And stayed off.

After a while, King decided that maybe he should call the power company. Since the computer, the washing machine, the dishwasher, the TV, and the radio were all on when the power went off, he thought it would be a good idea to let the company know that maybe it was our fault for draining all of our old home's resources at once. Or something. Or at least find out when we could continue our tasks. (I think he was really nervous one of our children would get lost in the laundry beast if I didn't get back to my climbing...) At any rate, he sat down with the phone book and the cell phone, and set out to contact them.

Only, he didn't really know who 'them' was.

"Hey, dear," he says to me, "What is our power company called?"

"Uh, I don't know. It's on the statements....Oh, but they're all emailed to me. Paperless. Or I could look on the online billing, if the power would come on..."

So, he names them all from the Yellow Pages. And I pick one. And he calls them. And they were very nice, but they were our gas company, and not our power company, and they didn't know why our power was out. (Duh.)

So, he tries another. And another. And, the third time is the charm. They knew us, and they knew why our power was out. There was an accident, and the power would be restored just as soon as they could get to it. It should only be a few hours.

I was sitting there thinking, 'How in the world do I not know who I pay loads of money to so that my lights and computer will turn on?!' In my defense, (and I know it's a weak one) the bill is paid automatically every month. I never write the name or do much more than check that the money was sent. And, our company is a subsidiary of the larger company in the phone book that I had never heard of. So, maybe it's okay that I am so lame?

Maybe. But probably not.

At least I'm not the one that made the phone calls to random power companies just for fun. That would have been really lame.

(Love ya, dearest!) :)