Re-Powerless

The power's supposed to be shut off again today, and this time I think they mean it.

Last time this was planned I got all ready for nothing, only to discover a postcard when I returned from heading down to town to find a postcard telling me the planned outage had been postponed to today. Whether I got that postcard the day before or that day, I can't say for sure. The thing is, try as I might, I've yet to figure out when my mail is delivered.

But this time around, I've even gotten a telephone call from my electricity provider, Southern California Edison, so I think they mean it. Actually, I got two, but one of them was another of those missed calls that I ignored. I tend to do that if I get a call from some 800-type number, the ones I just figure come from someone trying to scam me into something.

The good news, for me, is I'm not a family, not even if you include my dog, Minardi, in the counting. It's not hard for me to unplug the things that might suffer if the power spikes or keeps coming on and going off throughout the day and live without them because I won't have to listen to anyone complaining about not being able to watch TV or play with the computer. Better yet, I think, I won't be worrying very much about the refrigerator because I don't expect to be opening it until the power's back on for good.

Well, not more than once or twice, anyway.

I don't like to use the refrigerator very much any more, anyway, not since I screwed up its doors. By being careful and using a shim, in this case a large Sharpie, I can keep the doors sealed, and even though I've worked out a pretty efficient way of not wasting electricity by letting the doors leak, it's still a pain.

One thing I remind myself about is how much easier it is to live alone with no one nagging me about the refrigerator door, no one opening it a million times when there's no power, no one repeatedly asking me when the power's coming back on so they can heat up some trash in the microwave to eat. As much as I miss having someone close to share things with, this is the life I have and in some ways it's much easier.

But that's not the point.

For a couple more hours the electrons will flow and I plan to make the most of it. I don't know yet if I'll head into town and see about getting the Jeep's weatherstripping fixed or not. Minardi, of course, would like that, or at least the ride, but I'm a little unsure how well he'd handle hanging around for a couple hours while they did the work. He's a little too old to enjoy walking around for a long time, so maybe the best that can be done is to go to a car place and make an appointment to have the work done tomorrow or whenever.

And maybe that's just what I'll do, then come back here and pretend to put things away, clean up the place, and maybe even get something or other off that to-do list I keep ignoring (unless it's to add something).