The Dark Ages

Our power was shut off at noon yesterday. It is now 10:30 and the power is finally back on. The Dark Ages are over! The problem happened because I was told, a month ago when I went to sign up for our AEP service, that I was under a special and didn't have to pay the $83 deposit. So I didn't. Then yesterday, with no warning, no notice, no nothing, they shut it off. For the first couple of hours I assumed a normal outage, then I finally called to check on it by mid afternoon. I was told it was shut off because we didn't pay the deposit. After explaining the situation, the company was completely unsympathetic. The operators, most of them anyway, were very nice, but they said they couldn't do anything about it. I promptly paid the deposit over the phone. I was told it would be 1-3 days before power was restored. Of course I was freaking out, worried about food in the fridge and everything. Several phone calls later, I was finally assured it would be turned back on last night, no later than 10pm when the trucks shut down, but probably much earlier. By 9 I was on the phone again, to no avail. No one could tell me anything, truck schedule, how to get in touch with trucks, or when my power would be restored. After 10 I was back on the phone with them and told it just wasn't going to happen tonight. I was very upset, but didn't cuss out the operator or anything. She was nice. Even offered and did a wake up call this morning on the cell so Michael could get to work on time. A frantic call to the building manager got us allowance to run an extension cord into the hallway for just the fridge, with the understanding that it had to be unplugged by noon today. By 10am I was getting very worried, but just now I checked and the power was restored. Oh, happy day. Now all that remains is a Better Business Bureau complaint and catching up on the shows Jonathan and Lisa kindly took care of for us. Thanks guys! This whole situation sucked, but on the bright side (no pun intended), I did get a lot of reading done. First with natural sunlight, and then by candlelight last night. Still, I missed my internet. :)

Qop! (from last week's season premiere of Arrested Development)
MICHAEL: You're especially mean this morning, Mom. Are you sober?
LUCILLE: Michael, it's nine am!
MICHAEL: So that's not it...