Small Dramas on the Home Front

Hospital having put the kibosh on our lofty plans of cultural enlightenment and museum visiting, BD undertook to introduce us to the Marvel universe via the Avenger movies.  Even unplanned hospital stays didn't stop us: we watched our afternoon Marvel movie on her tiny tablet screen with subtitles on and the sound down low to avoid annoying whoever was in the bed on the other side of her paper curtain. BD carefully guided us through the nuances of the Marvel universe, answering complex questions like 'Is he a bad guy?' and 'How come they've got all this technology and it still boils down to just thumping each other?'  Roger despaired at the movies' wanton disregard of basic physics and use of scientific terms such as 'superfloomp'.

BD, albeit closely monitored, stayed out of hospital and even moved back to her place, sleeping in her own bed with her own cat while we visited daily to lift things and do everything she's not allowed to do yet.  In between times we bounced between both house sits, moving stuff out of one and into the other. The dogs demanded walks; the cat went crazy at 7pm every day; life got back to our version of normal.

This I can handle.

On Saturday Roger arrived at BD's to pick her up for dinner and the next Marvel movie. 'Hang on', she said. 'I'll just put the dishwasher on.'

No power.

They checked the fuse boxes. No problem.

They checked for a general blackout. No blackout.

They rang the rental agent who sent round an electrician, who told them they didn't have any power to the house and they needed to talk to the power company because the electrician couldn't diagnose anything with no power.

They rang the power company. 'Oh yeah', said the power company. 'We turned the power off to the house because there was a power anomaly and we don't want any houses to go up in flames because that's bad for business. We didn't have a phone number so we didn't tell anyone.'

'Thanks for that. Can you come out?'

'Our emergency crew is on their way. Might be there in one hour. Or four. Or when they get there.'

BD and Roger collected candles and torches and she packed a bag in case of a powerless night and the need to decamp to Hotel de Parentals.  After a while and a bit of feline complaining they realised that the cat feeders didn't work without power, so they fed the cats too.  It was boring and dark and cold in the house waiting for the power company.

Cat is unimpressed.

They ate takeaway dinner in the dark. Back in my comfortable unit I ate their dinner and watched TV and felt sorry for them, but not sorry enough to go and join them.

The power company came and did some tests and said 'Not our problem!  Get the electrician to fix it and then we'll check before we switch it back on.'

Annoying, but I prefer needing a power company truck over needing an ambulance.

 

The electrician came back and replaced a bit of electrical hardware that had keeled over from old age.  Roger and BD waited for the power company to come back for pre-switch-on checks.  Could be one hour.  Or four.  Or sometime...

They sat in the dark and watched a movie until her tablet went flat. Then they sat in the dark and played on their phones. The power company came back, pronounced the work all done, switched their switch and hallelujah!  The lights, heaters, and cat feeders all came back to life.

BD went to sleep in her own bed.  Roger went back to two dogs who were sure that they had been left to starve, and greeted him accordingly (no, they didn't eat him, silly!  They just jumped up and down until he fed them.)

No houses were flamed in the making of this tale.  Twas a small drama which, on the whole, is the type of drama I prefer.

Goodnight.

Nice doors.  Nothing to do with the story, just nice doors.