I don’t even know how to tell you — today the electricity suddenly went off midmorning. I was screwing the legs of one of those new chairs to its seat when the A/C halted and the refrigerator clicked. I figured it was somehow related to all the construction going on around here. After all, I could see three big cranes on the roof of the Wells Fargo building on the next corner, and I could hear city workers sawing limbs off the trees down at street level. After a while I opened the doors to the balcony because it was getting hot inside. Finally I went to the HOA office on the first floor to see what had happened. They had no idea. No one else had complained. (Just then a woman named Darius peeked in to say her lights had indeed flickered some time ago.) I went back upstairs and the condo was still dim. The freezer registered 17° instead of zero. The clock on the stove was flashing. I was finishing up that first chair when it dawned on me that I had probably not paid my electric bill. That’s right — I paid Sacramento utilities, but I discovered today that it did not include electricity. The condo association pays something but it’s not electricity. (It’s trash pickup.) In the maelstrom that has been my brain all these things got jumbled.
The beauty is I made a call to the city and quickly talked to an actual person. She said they try to notify people when a turn-off is imminent, but sometimes in condos and apartments that does not happen. She got me hooked up in less than 30 minutes, working so kindly and efficiently that I didn’t even feel embarrassed. (I’m more embarrassed telling you!) So that was this morning.
I had relied on Clark, and he on me for these bills. They came up one by one and we talked them over. Often it was Clark who made the phone calls concerning service. Once set up, they worked smoothly and we -- or at least I -- barely thought about it.
But this afternoon I made a sweep of other bills I’d been paying, without changing from the old setup. AT&T (They seem to call it ATT now.) was still in Clark’s name and I hadn’t streamlined the number of devices on the account. Today seemed like the day to take care of that. No harm done there, thank goodness!
You hear about people who lose electric service routinely, then pay the bill and have power turned back on. Today it was me.
This took so much time that the afternoon slipped away. I got another chair put together, but have two to finish up tomorrow.
At lunchtime Zing and I walked over by City Hall, and one block beyond we came upon a well-preserved Victorian house turned into a Hostel.
Really, when you visit me I expect all my services will be well organized, but if you feel you need the name of a good, dependable hotel, that hostel is a quick walk down Fifth Street. I noticed that the lights were on inside.
Love,
k
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