BLACKOUT

One of the hottest days of the year… and…

It’s about 8:30 p.m. and I am in my room getting ready to blog about how hellishly hot it is and Jene’ is in her room transferring files and BOOM! The electricity flashes on and off, then back on again. This ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, except the a/c is running full blast, the dryer is on and the washer is mid spin cycle. Since this is an old apartment complex and the place is not wired for such electrical activity… the electricity stays off… in my half of the apartment.

My half of the apartment is also wired to run the air conditioner. The washer comes to a screeching halt. The dryer continues to run, after all, it is a different voltage and therefore separate. Jene’s room still has power, though it grows hotter by the minute as her two computers trade about 9 gigs of information furiously. The first call to the maintenance guy is taken at 8:40. Jene’ calls at 9:15, 9:40 and is about to call at 10:40 when the maintenance guy gets around to tripping the breaker. In Houston, especially during a heatwave, any maintenance calls for a/c are treated as emergencies, and usually, when we do trip a breaker, within 15 minutes it is restored. Needless to say, we were a little restless until the a/c was turned back on.

But now… we’re cooling off. Jene’s room had gotten quite toasty with her two computers churning and the dryer running below her downstairs. It’s getting better now, but the a/c will be on full blast for a couple of hours, I’m sure. I’m about to tempt fate and throw my clothes in the dryer and start another load of laundry (yes, in my jammies).

Good night!