And Now The Exciting Conclusion (Hopefully) of Our Drama

This is, I hope, the last installment of the Parental Power Outage Saga.  If you need the background details, scroll back a few posts.  Start here.

So around 6pm I checked the status report again, hoping to at least see an estimated time of restoration.  No such luck.  

A few minutes later my mother calls.  She had tried calling the house, and she got the answering machine!  The power must be back on!  She was pretty stoked, no lie.

I volunteered to go over and see if the power was really back.  They had already gotten the house as warm as they could, then headed out for the evening. I was also kind of hoping to see if the crew was still there, to thank them for the hard work, and to see if they were local or had traveled from afar to help.

No sign of the crew when I arrived.  Who knows how long the power might have been back before my mother tried calling the house.  There was definitely light, however.

The outside light is on!  

OMG the power is really back on!  I went in to turn up their heat a bit so it would be warm when they returned later, but also to make sure the furnace would start.  I also had to check and make sure the oven was off.  You see, my mother has been worried this entire time that because she had the oven on when the power went out (trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner), that it was going to come roaring back to life when the power was restored.  It did not, but I did call her to tell her that.

I'm not sure what exactly the problem was, but they had obviously done some work at the pole at some point.  All of the snow was neatly cleaned off.

Pretty clear pole, and the trees look sparkly with ice

I am so thankful that they got their power -- and more specifically their heat -- back and functioning! It is getting freaking cold out.  

Feel like 16!  And it is only going to get colder!

A great big, enormous thank you to whichever crew got the power back on!  I would buy you all coffee and hand warmers if I knew who you were!  I am so relieved that their power is back on before this super cold night.

And just for the record...

We are finally in agreement, Central Hudson. 

*I'd like to think this is because you realized there was an error in your system somewhere and made haste to correct it.  However, it is possible that it is because I was a bit pushy a giant bitch.  I'd apologize, but I'm really not sorry.  Nobody screws with my parents.*

And So It Continues -- Power Outage Part II: Electric Bugaloo

As you might be guessing, my parents still don't have power.  Not up to speed on this whole deal?  Check out my previous posts.

I went out for brunch and a bit of shopping (to the grocery store -- which is empty the day after Thanksgiving people!  Best time to shop!)  with my mother.  My father opted to stay home and keep the heat sources running in an attempt to keep the house at least a little warm.

It was exciting for a bit this afternoon.  A little before 3pm the status check said that their power had been restored.  Hurrah!!

So I called them on the landline.  They might not realize the power was fixed until they heard the phone ringing.  They didn't answer, and when the answering machine never kicked on I knew the power must not really be back.

So I called my mother on her cell.  The power was not fixed.

She called Central Hudson, and they informed her that it had been fixed last night.  No.

Fucking no.

My mother asked if they thought she and her neighbor would both still be running generators if it had been fixed last night.  Whomever she spoke to asked if she wanted to file another work order.  Seriously?  They have no power or heat, do you really have to ask if they would like to have that situation resolved?

And then she went next door, to tell her neighbor the exciting news.  As you can imagine, he was as delighted as she had been to discover that they supposedly had gotten their power restored last night.  He was also going to call Central Hudson to correct them.

And now, when you check the status, it is back to this:

You might be thinking, "It's annoying/inconvenient not to have power.  It will get fixed.  Calm down."

No, I'm not going to calm down.  We are possibly going to have record-setting low temperatures tonight.

I logged on to Facebook, and saw a post from Central Hudson giving themselves a big old pat-on-the-back for all of the hard work they have done, and how they have restored 95% of the power outages. They are closing the warming centers and the dry ice distribution because everything is awesome now!

That is when my residual "niceness" about the situation finally ran out.  I wondered how many of these people really got their power restored, and how many they were claiming had been restored but, like my parents and their neighbors, were actually still out?

So I decided, just for shits and giggles, to message Central Hudson on Facebook and see if I got a response.  I'm more than happy to give them credit where credit is due: whomever was answering their Facebook messages did they best they could with the information they were given.

I explained the whole situation, how the status check had said their power was restored when it obviously was not, how my mother had called and been told it was restored when it wasn't, and then had to file another work order.

The first answer I got was the standard explanation about how sometimes when they fix a bigger problem, they can't tell that there is still a smaller problem further down the line.

I can see how that could happen, but that obviously is not the case here.  I informed them that it was only ever the two houses -- there was no bigger issue.  They can see the twisted wires on the pole -- there is nothing visibly evident as "down" if you are looking at the ground. 

A while later they wrote back and asked if she had reported that, about the twisted wires.  I had to call my mother to consult.  She told me she had reported that when she initially spoke to them yesterday (she even knew the name of the person she spoke to), and her neighbor had told the person he had spoken to several times (he knew that name as well).  When my mother had called this afternoon to report that, in fact, the power had not been restored she did not get the person's name, nor did they ask for any information.  All they had asked was if she wanted to open another work order.

The last message I received was that there was an open work order for both addresses since "a few hours ago".  I just gave up and said thank you.  It's obviously a complete load of crap since "a few hours ago" they were under the misapprehension that the power had been restored.  No one even called them to file the new work order under a little after 3pm.  

And so the power outage continues.

I understand that communication problems can easily take place in a situation like this. I do not, however, enjoy having smoke blown up my ass.  You screwed up.  You cannot simultaneously believe the power was restored and have an open work order on it.  You marked a problem as fixed when it clearly was not.  My guess?  Someone drove by, saw that no tree branches or wires were down, and marked it as fixed on the assumption that another crew had already been there.

In Which My Parents Still Don't Have Power

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents lost power at their house yesterday morning.  It is just their house and their neighbors' house -- only the two of them on the entire street.  That never bodes well in terms of how quickly you are going to get repaired.

I checked the status on the Central Hudson website last night, and it gave an estimated time of restoration.  Huzzah!  According to the website, their power was due to be restored around 12:30 this morning.  Even if it was a little later, at least they were going to get power and heat back soon.

I cropped it somewhat.  You don't need to see their address.

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to check and see if my parents had their power back.  I had sent my mother a text last night telling her that her power should come back overnight.  She had replied this morning.  I was expecting to see a message that said that power had been restored.  I did this before I even had coffee, which was a mistake.  I'm not a "morning person", and those who know me know better than to piss me off before I've had my coffee.  Her message said they still did not have power -- and this was several hours after the "estimated restoration" time.

Now I'm was annoyed.

So I went back to Central Hudson's Storm Central, and this is what I see when I check their status:

Seriously?  You went from 12:30am to "We don't know"?

I made some coffee, before I got any more pissed off, and called my mother to tell her the news.  She had already called and spoken to a live person at Central Hudson, and they gave her an estimation of 4:30 this afternoon.  I told her that I hoped that was correct, as the online status check had no such news.

And then she told me the part that really just pissed me off.  It probably didn't help that as she was telling me the story I was checking Central Hudson's Facebook page to see them talking about how hard they are working.

Post by Central Hudson.

That's great.  Really, I appreciate all of these people who came to help, many of whom I sure left their families on Thanksgiving to be here.  I appreciate it, I honestly do.

However, this all could apparently have been avoided --or the possibility of a power outage could have been decreased.

Their neighbor -- the one other house that has no power -- had been keeping an eye on things.  He also lived through the last go-round when their houses had been without power for four days.  He had reported to Central Hudson several times over the past few months that it appeared to be a bare wire running from the main electric line to their post.  It didn't look to have the same thicker cover over it that went from the main line to the other connections.  He had been proactive and reported this to them several times trying to avoid this exact situation.  Did anyone listen?  No.  And here they are, with no power once again.

I really should not be that surprised that they ignored him.  There is a streetlight out on my road, and I have reported it multiple times.  Two and a half years later they still have never fixed it.  Might as well bang your head against a wall as report an issue that they consider unimportant.

We shall see how this progresses.  I'm still holding out hopes that the Canadians will save the day and get their power back on quickly.

Because -- Turkey!

I have many things to be thankful for: my family, friends, and good health being the most important.  Today I am also thankful for random acts of kindness and electricity.  That may seem a bit odd, but let me explain.

I woke up this morning fully prepared to have to do battle with the heavy,wet snow we got yesterday.  I hate shoveling, so I had parked my car at the bottom of my driveway with every intention of doing the bare minimum to shovel out around it and clear the front steps and sidewalk.  I got bundled up and went outside and discovered that some kind soul had already done my entire driveway and the front walk!  It's a Thanksgiving miracle!  I know it wasn't the neighbor who shares my driveway, as her half had been left untouched.  I think it was my other neighbor, and he is awesome.  I will have to buy him some Heineken as a gift (that's his beverage of choice),

Feeling pretty good about the day, I went back inside to call my parents and tell them of my good luck, and to see what time I should venture on over.  My mother was cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and in return I was going to play tech support for all things computer related.  It was at this same time that I noticed a lot of people on Facebook were mentioning they did not have power.  I was very grateful that I still had mine, as did my parents.

About half an hour later my phone rang.  It was my mother, and they had just lost power.  Not the whole street, just them and their next-door neighbors.  Apparently the neighbor had come over to tell them he had seen what happened, and had already called Central Hudson.  No estimate given for restoration, and they suggested he make alternate plans for Thanksgiving, and it might be the entire weekend before the power was back.  My mother was calling to tell me that she was giving it half an hour, and then she would let me know if the power was back on or whether Thanksgiving was now going to be at my house.  Thank goodness someone had cleared my entire driveway for me!

As I ran around like crazy, trying to clean and straighten as much as possible for the unexpected company, it struck me that this really shouldn't be a surprise.  Every time my mother cooks a turkey there is a pretty good chance that the power will go out.

Yeah.  You read that correctly.  Mom cooking turkey = high chance of a power outage.

This is definitely not the first time the power has gone out when she was trying to cook a turkey.  It happens with unusual regularity.  I distinctly remember one time -- it wasn't even a holiday -- when she had to finish cooking a turkey on the wood stove in the living room.  My grandparents even showed up, as they had been driving home from a deep-sea fishing trip and decided the weather was too bad to drive all the way home.  They mistakenly thought we would have power.  I remember we did eventually have the turkey, but we also got to drink the liquefied ice cream that my grandparents had thought they were going to put in our freezer. That part was pretty cool when you're a kid -- it was like getting milkshakes!

For today's mobile cooking extravaganza, my mother brought basically everything in the universe that she might need for Thanksgiving, because apparently she thinks I own nothing related to the culinary arts.  Most of it was pans and dishes she had already prepped things in that just needed to go in a functional oven.  There were a few odd things though:

--flour
--poultry seasoning
--potato masher
--a corkscrew

Seriously, Mom?  You honestly thought I would not have a corkscrew?  Do you think I just break the neck off my wine bottles?  I have all my bases covered for alcohol consumption, thanks.  The only thing on that list I did not have was the poultry seasoning.  I have spices, we could have created something.  Also, who had the turkey baster?  Yeah, that was me.  She did not remember to bring one.

The one thing I was sadly lacking was a meat thermometer.  I have never had the need to use one, and she did not bring hers.  It would have been helpful, as our turkey had a pop-up button thingy on it that never popped.  I'm sure it was done though.  No one has gotten sick so far.

The biggest problem is going to be the fact that my parents still don't have power, and as of now Central Hudson still has no restoration estimate for them.  They have ventured back home, although I told them they should stay here.  They have the fireplace, and little heaters, and swear they will be fine.  Plus, the cats need them to be home to run those heat sources.  Central Hudson has warming centers open, and crews coming from as far away as Canada to help.  Also, we apparently sent several crews to help in Buffalo last week, and they are on the way back now.

I'd like to thank the Canadians for always being there to help.  Why the Canadians, specifically, you might be wondering?  A few years ago this same situation played out during a big storm, when only my parents and their immediate neighbors lost power.  It took 4 days, in freezing weather, before they could get their power restored.  The crew that eventually showed up was Canadian -- I know because I spoke to them.  It literally took them about half an hour to fix the problem.  The guy in charge said they pretty much just had to flip a switch on the pole, and apologized for the delay.

I really hope my parents get their power back soon, although that is not looking likely. At least I still have power, and they know that they are always welcome.  Hopefully the Canadians get here quickly, as it might be up to them to bring back the power once again!

I wonder if it would it help if my mother swears she will never cook a turkey ever again?  This is like the fourth or fifth time (that I can remember) when the power has gone out while she was trying to cook one.  She might be jinxed.

Think You Are Out of Luck

One of our younger patrons came in to the library this afternoon, and he was all excited because he heard it was supposed to snow tonight.  The following conversation took place...

Boy: Do you know it is supposed to snow?

Me: Someone told me that earlier this afternoon, that we might get--

Boy: Could you check the weather report?  What does it say?  Are we getting snow?

Me:  Just a sec, I'm bringing it up now.  It says 70% chance of rain and snow, less than an inch of accumulation. 

Boy:  How much is an inch?  Do you think I'll get a snow day?

Me:  An inch is only like this much, dude. (I showed him with my fingers.)  Maybe you'll get a delay if you are really lucky. 

Boy:  I hope I get a snow day!

Me:  Well, you better go home and start doing the Snow Day Dance to try and make it happen!  Good luck!

Boy: Maybe I'll see you tomorrow -- after it snows!

Me: I'll be here!

And the patrons in line behind him thought he was so cute to be that excited about possibly getting an inch of snow. I did my part to help out his cause by not getting out my snow shovel. Maybe that will make Mother Nature bring enough snow to at least get the kid a two-hour delay. 

UPDATE:  Think my friend will be going to school unless the weather gets a lot worse overnight. Below is a picture of what the snow has amounted to so far. 

Sorry, little buddy!  Better luck next time!

Apparently I Am Beyond Saving

So, you may or may not remember that I have a particular religious group that likes to visit my house and attempt to "save" me on a fairly regular basis.

Tonight we had a very religious man -- you might say a zealot -- who was bent on trying to save my coworker.  Of the three of us working this evening, he picked the most religious of us to try and convert.  Apparently she was not Christian enough, or not the right kind of Christian.   He creeped her out, and she doesn't get creeped out easily.

He wanted to leave information for her, and then refused to give it to a coworker.  He wanted to wait to give it to her personally.  He did not get that opportunity, as Security got the pamphlet and asked him to leave.

I had seen them talking, but had no idea that he was being weird.  I walked right past him as I was headed out to the recycling.  He even held the door for me.

I got the whole story after he left, and I remarked that it was odd he chose my coworker to try to convert, as I usually was a very popular choice with people looking to "save" others.    Apparently he did make a remark about me, like I already belonged to the devil or some such nonsense.

I'm not really sure what to make of that.  On the one hand, I am totally okay if I have somehow managed to attain a vibe that says, "Don't even bother."  It's really just saving the "Savers" the hassle of trying to convert me to their particular brand of religion, and I don't have to pretend to be remotely interested.  On the other hand, I kind of wonder what it is that makes every uber-religious person think that I am the spawn of Satan.

I'm not anti-religion.  If you have found something that makes you happy, helps you find peace in life -- that's awesome!  Love it, celebrate it, enjoy.  I was raised Roman Catholic, although I don't go to church anymore.  That's my choice.  I have a problem with some of their views.  I'm not sure any one group has got it right.  I have a real problem believing that anyone's God would want people to kill in his/her name, for example.  I believe that if two people are lucky enough to fall in love it's a beautiful thing -- their gender or sexual orientation doesn't make a difference. I'm not a fan of people trying to push their religion onto others.  You do your thing, let everyone else do their thing.

Oh well.

If creepy guy shows up again I will just make sure he has to talk to me.  That ought to keep any interaction short, sweet, and to the point.

That Was Unsettling

I was at work this morning, and I got a call on my cell phone.  I didn't recognize the number, it wasn't a local call, so I had it send the message that I couldn't talk right now.  

Immediately I get  text back claiming that it is FedEx, and asking if I am home.  

This does not seem right, and it is kind of creepy.  

First, I have never had FedEx try to call me or ask if I am home for a delivery.  They either leave the item or leave a note saying they tried to deliver.  

Secondly, I am not expecting any deliveries.  I haven't ordered anything.  I also assume that anyone who was sending something so valuable that it needed a signature would have told me to expect it.

So I did a Google search of the phone number.  If it is legitimately Federal Express trying to contact me then it should be registered to them.  Nope.  Comes up as a mobile phone.

No way am I going to answer that text.  You can freaking wonder whether I am at home or not.  If it is really FedEx then they can leave the note that I missed my package.

I did, however, text my friend (and neighbor) who lives down the street to ask her to keep an eye on my house if she was home.  Coincidentally, my neighbor across the street also stopped into work, and I told her about the weird call as well.

You might be wondering why I got so freaked out over what appears to be either an innocent call or a phishing scam.

I was away on vacation last week, but I had various people stopping by the house to take care of the cats, and I had told my friend down the street that I would be away, just in case anything happened.  I was going to be gone during Halloween and Mischief Night -- better to be safe than sorry, in my opinion.

On Sunday, when I was home again, I noticed that a couple of the pumpkins I had left out as decorations were missing.  I didn't think anything of it.  A storm had blown through while I was gone, and they were just foam pumpkins, so I assumed they had just blown away.  It was a bummer, but not a tragic loss. 

On Monday, as I was getting ready to leave for work, I saw my friend down the street.  We stopped to chat and she told me that someone had broken into the house across the street from mine while I was on vacation.  Apparently they smashed a window in the middle of the day, brazen as anything.  The police had come around asking if anyone had seen or heard anything.

Now that you have the whole back-story, you can understand how getting a random message at work asking if I am at home might have freaked me out a bit.  For all I knew this person was sitting outside of my house, casing the place.  I think they would be mighty disappointed though, unless they are in the market for a big-ass, heavy as hell, standard television that won't let you watch many television shows.

My house is just fine, in case you are wondering. I'm home now, and if anyone starts acting creepy outside my house I will be calling the police.