First of all, I'm sick, sinus and ear infection and I'm 99% sure it's turned into bronchitis. Yay. But I'll get better, eventually. of course by then, I may want to be sick again so I won't have to clean my house. It always gets trashed when I'm sick... not because family members don't know what needs to be done... but because they'd rather sit on their butts. Oh I could rant and rant and rant here, but you don't wanna hear that.
Today's blog is because the people who run the local light and power dept are evil... EEEVILLLLL. I knew we were late on the payment, but Corina had needed the money to get her car fixed and I thought maybe just this once things would work out and we'd be able to pay it out of the next check. I'd not renewed my two cash advances which would save us $60 in fees if they'd just hold off... well today, ON A FREAKING FRIDAY, at 3 O CLOCK!!!... the dude comes to the back door (I REALLY hate that cause it's a french door type with a big window in it and it's near my bedroom so the creeper dudes can see right in. WTH can't they go to the front door??? ) Anyway, dude comes to the door saying we gotta pay in cash (did I mention we have had a long long battle with being responsible financially - yeah the power company won't take checks from us anymore, how sad is that?) or he'd turn it off.
Seriously at 3pm on a Friday. I knew we'd be able to get the money and get it paid, that's not the problem. The problem I have is the other people on his list. How many of those people were going to have a very difficult time coming up with the money in the 2 hours between the guy coming to the door and 5pm when the power company closes for the WHOLE FREAKING WEEKEND. I'm just glad that currently it's not freezing cold out, in fact it was shorts weather today (Friday), but still. I can't help but think of the elderly on fixed incomes, new families who have it as hard as we did, or even single moms etc. It makes me mad, and I really think there should be a law about it. Not being able to pay is one thing, and I understand they need to be paid, but seriously do they even think about the lives they may be hurting or even risking? What if there's a baby who needs to have formula and the mom can't heat up the water to make it warm for him? Let me tell you, I have been there done that. Zoe couldn't physically nurse, so had to have a bottle.
Ok.. so I ranted about that. Obviously we have power now, I'm blogging. Christopher got off work at 3pm, dumped the garbage, bought me some medicine and came home to get me. I renewed my cash advances and was just thankful I had that option, then we went and got it paid. That was at 4:30. it didn't come back on til nearly 11pm.
We had no idea how long it would be other than "Sometime later today." Honestly that's all they'd say. So, we all sat around in the living room listening to music on the laptop and talking and having a pretty good time together as a family til the laptop died. Then I went to take a nap cause I felt like crap and would have been in bed all day if I hadn't had to go out. Zoe was upset and bored so we told her to go take a nap so she did. The older girls went down the street to a friend's house, and Christopher snuggled into bed next to me... til he started fidgeting. It's not easy to nap when the lump you're laying on fidgets.
I told him to go get us food. He said, "Why don't we all go out." Sigh.... Ok. I agreed. He's head of the household and I do always defer to him when it's something like this. He gets impatient and can be very nervous and OCD about certain things and I know the signs... he wanted us out of the house - he had to DO something - anything to make this better. Ok. So, then he says he has to put fix a flat in the van tire cause he'd forgotten... at this point it was around 7:30pm and was now raining and very dark. Poor guy. But he did it and got it aired up at the gas station across the street. We wrangled all the girls, got them all into shoes and jackets and headed to Arby's. We took over 3 tables in a corner. Really, LOL. He was happy to see a table with a wall socket and brought in his laptop to charge and read his email and blogs. We sat and talked and relaxed.
This was a meal we did not have planned in the budget, plus there was the $60 for the cash advances I had hoped to not have to renew PLUS the reconnect fee on the electric bill. If I had just paid the stupid bill on time, none of it would have happened and I may have still had the cash advance fees, we wouldn't have spent the other money... but also... we wouldn't have had a really good time together as a family without electronic things taking away our attention. In fact when we got home and the power was still off, we lit candles and all sat down and played Boggle by candlelight and even kept playing after the power finally came back on.
So, yeah the power companies are evil, but I think God used them for His own plan and made today a truly Family day for us and it was a lot of fun. I hope the kids see it as an adventure instead of a bad memory.
Corina came over with Tyler then and the kids all played on the Wii and Christopher & I went to our room and watched an Agatha Christie movie for our date night.
All in all a good day I guess, even for being sick and having to run and get it all taken care of. The best part was the peace I felt the whole time. I knew we'd be able to get it back on, and I knew we wouldn't freeze or starve or go into withdrawals from electronics addictions. That was nice.
I hope you all had a good day and got to enjoy nice weather today. I hear the snow is coming again, so here's hoping everyone keeps power and stays warm and well fed and happy all weekend!
Today's blog is because the people who run the local light and power dept are evil... EEEVILLLLL. I knew we were late on the payment, but Corina had needed the money to get her car fixed and I thought maybe just this once things would work out and we'd be able to pay it out of the next check. I'd not renewed my two cash advances which would save us $60 in fees if they'd just hold off... well today, ON A FREAKING FRIDAY, at 3 O CLOCK!!!... the dude comes to the back door (I REALLY hate that cause it's a french door type with a big window in it and it's near my bedroom so the creeper dudes can see right in. WTH can't they go to the front door??? ) Anyway, dude comes to the door saying we gotta pay in cash (did I mention we have had a long long battle with being responsible financially - yeah the power company won't take checks from us anymore, how sad is that?) or he'd turn it off.
Seriously at 3pm on a Friday. I knew we'd be able to get the money and get it paid, that's not the problem. The problem I have is the other people on his list. How many of those people were going to have a very difficult time coming up with the money in the 2 hours between the guy coming to the door and 5pm when the power company closes for the WHOLE FREAKING WEEKEND. I'm just glad that currently it's not freezing cold out, in fact it was shorts weather today (Friday), but still. I can't help but think of the elderly on fixed incomes, new families who have it as hard as we did, or even single moms etc. It makes me mad, and I really think there should be a law about it. Not being able to pay is one thing, and I understand they need to be paid, but seriously do they even think about the lives they may be hurting or even risking? What if there's a baby who needs to have formula and the mom can't heat up the water to make it warm for him? Let me tell you, I have been there done that. Zoe couldn't physically nurse, so had to have a bottle.
Ok.. so I ranted about that. Obviously we have power now, I'm blogging. Christopher got off work at 3pm, dumped the garbage, bought me some medicine and came home to get me. I renewed my cash advances and was just thankful I had that option, then we went and got it paid. That was at 4:30. it didn't come back on til nearly 11pm.
We had no idea how long it would be other than "Sometime later today." Honestly that's all they'd say. So, we all sat around in the living room listening to music on the laptop and talking and having a pretty good time together as a family til the laptop died. Then I went to take a nap cause I felt like crap and would have been in bed all day if I hadn't had to go out. Zoe was upset and bored so we told her to go take a nap so she did. The older girls went down the street to a friend's house, and Christopher snuggled into bed next to me... til he started fidgeting. It's not easy to nap when the lump you're laying on fidgets.
I told him to go get us food. He said, "Why don't we all go out." Sigh.... Ok. I agreed. He's head of the household and I do always defer to him when it's something like this. He gets impatient and can be very nervous and OCD about certain things and I know the signs... he wanted us out of the house - he had to DO something - anything to make this better. Ok. So, then he says he has to put fix a flat in the van tire cause he'd forgotten... at this point it was around 7:30pm and was now raining and very dark. Poor guy. But he did it and got it aired up at the gas station across the street. We wrangled all the girls, got them all into shoes and jackets and headed to Arby's. We took over 3 tables in a corner. Really, LOL. He was happy to see a table with a wall socket and brought in his laptop to charge and read his email and blogs. We sat and talked and relaxed.
This was a meal we did not have planned in the budget, plus there was the $60 for the cash advances I had hoped to not have to renew PLUS the reconnect fee on the electric bill. If I had just paid the stupid bill on time, none of it would have happened and I may have still had the cash advance fees, we wouldn't have spent the other money... but also... we wouldn't have had a really good time together as a family without electronic things taking away our attention. In fact when we got home and the power was still off, we lit candles and all sat down and played Boggle by candlelight and even kept playing after the power finally came back on.
So, yeah the power companies are evil, but I think God used them for His own plan and made today a truly Family day for us and it was a lot of fun. I hope the kids see it as an adventure instead of a bad memory.
Corina came over with Tyler then and the kids all played on the Wii and Christopher & I went to our room and watched an Agatha Christie movie for our date night.
All in all a good day I guess, even for being sick and having to run and get it all taken care of. The best part was the peace I felt the whole time. I knew we'd be able to get it back on, and I knew we wouldn't freeze or starve or go into withdrawals from electronics addictions. That was nice.
I hope you all had a good day and got to enjoy nice weather today. I hear the snow is coming again, so here's hoping everyone keeps power and stays warm and well fed and happy all weekend!
Comments
Post a Comment
I love getting comments, and I read every one. Thanks for coming by my site and reading my ramblings. I hope you have a wonderful day! -Patty