Just sayin' ...

So, after this idiot hit the pole in front of the neighbor's house at 5:30 yesterday morning, the Long Island Power Authority had to come and replace said pole.

Now, our power wasn't affected when the guy hit the pole. LIPA on the other hand had different ideas. By 5:00 yesterday afternoon, I would have sworn my house was possessed.

Let me just say here that last year, some genius in a stolen car sheared the pole directly in front of my house in half and the power stayed on, even during the pole replacement process.

So, yesterday, the power goes on and off all day. Fine, I can live with that, they're fixing shit. Then, in the afternoon (as I'm watching the last 15 minutes of the Olympique de Marseilles v. Stade Rennais match of course) as the Mrs. is making dinner (Chicken Cordon Bleu I was waiting for all day) the power goes out again (we have an electric oven and electric range) for a second and comes back on. Fine.

Thing is, only half the house came back on (not the oven where my Chicken Cordon Bleu was cooking). Not my TV in the bar or the lights, but the lights in the next room. Not the refrigerator or the microwave, but the TV in the kitchen. Not the Mrs. freezer in the garage but the lights in the garage. Not the TV in my office but the computer on the desk. See where I'm going here?

So of course, I open the electric box and start resetting breakers (though none of them were blown) just for my own peace of mind. I checked the GFCIs in the bathrooms and reset them too, just for shits and giggles. Nothing. By this point, I'm figuring it's a low voltage thing created by the guys working on the pole. I've seen modern cars get screwy with voltage quality problems so I chalked it up to that. Fine.

I go back upstairs and the Mrs. is cursing up a storm (nobody screws with her while she's cooking). I tell her I'm gonna walk the dogs (she has sharp knives and I figured we'd be better off outside) and she says she's gonna make us sandwiches.

So me and the girls head out to take a leak (them, not me) and I hear yelling coming from the street. What is it? 4 LIPA guys on the ground yelling at each other about how they fucked something up. Then they start yelling at the guy hanging up in the bucket on the pole. They all shut up when they saw me and the girls watching them in disbelief. Really?

With what we pay for electric around here, I expect:

A) Repair crews who know what they are doing.

B) Repair crews who are professional and don't fight in the streets.

About 10 years ago, I lost a lot of electronics in this house because of some idiot hitting a pole and sending a power surge through my shit. I don't need the guys who are fixing the problem doing more damage to my shit than the original accident. LIPA doesn't like paying, regardless of the cause.

So me and the girls head back in and the Mrs. had some great sandwiches put together (she was a little calmer too) and I tell her what goes on outside. We sit down and have a nice, albeit off-the-cuff, dinner.

Wouldn't you know it though, just as we're finishing up with dinner, everything comes back on and the house is functioning normally. At least I'm getting Chicken Cordon Bleu tonight ...