Today I have a short rant on why you should be better organized. I’ll tell you why not being very organized cost me a few hours of sleep. I’ll tell you how to avoid similar pain and how being prepared really kept it from being very bad. Even though I really want to crawl into bed right now and catch up on some of that missing sleep I hate missing a day without a new blog. So read on and let me rant at you!
Rude Awakening!
I overslept yesterday by quite a few hours. Waking up around 4am, and having to rush to get my cleaning, laundry and cooking done before having to go to work that night. To get enough sleep I need to be in bed around 10~11 am. With everything I had to do It was around 12 before I laid down. Falling asleep that early was pretty hard. I slept very badly and ended up being woke up by some kids yelling upstairs. I decided to turn on my fan to drown out the noise. I turned the knob back and fourth to no avail. The thing just wouldn’t come on. I checked my phone and saw it was not charging either. A quick throughway the apartment showed me I had no power.
Forgetfulness!
CRAP! I realized I forgot to pay the electric bill. The one that was only 13 days late. One month past due, with the new bill just having come out. My past due amount was $70! I checked my phone to see if I had any missed calls. Nope, no attempt to call me before cutting off my power, in winter. I put on pants and drove down the street to pay the bill and get the power back on. I got to the electric company at 4:39, they close at 4:30. Nine minutes late and they had apparently ran out the building.
Backup Plan
With my annoyance growing I returned home. With the power out my internet would be out too. sadly backup power is next on my list to get. My laptop stays fully charged though so I turned on the wifi hotspot on my phone. Went slowly to the online pay center for the electric company and paid my bill in full. Next I called the 24 hour service number to check on when I could expect to get the power back on. Since they were closed for the day (by ten minutes) it would be a $95 fee to reconnect. No fee for waiting will the morning time. I may have gotten a tad bit angry with the guy on the phone and ended up hanging up. No way was I going to pay almost $100 to get my power back on a few hours early. At this point I only had two hours before work and it would be back on before I returned home. I had flashlights and oil lamps, I knew my fridge would last a few hours, So I decided to just go back to sleep. I at least tried to sleep while mentally cussing them out for turning off my power. I day without power even in the bitter cold day is not big deal for me. What If I had been elderly or sick though? Seems like a courtesy call would be good customer service…
Let there be light
About thirty minutes or so after paying and calling them (and hanging up) my power kicked back on. Waking me up again. I guess someone was in the area. Good on them for turning me back on. I also had a bit of time to calm down. I am at times scatterbrained and forgetful. I completely forgot to pay the bill and as a result caused myself the loss of sleep and frustration.
Lessons Learned
Even bad situations can have a benefit if you look at it and accept the lessons there. The lessons I learned from this
- Get a bill organizer and use it!
- Push up power redundancy plans
- Buy another oil lamp or two.
My oil lamp which i have not used in several month worked perfectly. My bedside flashlight also worked great. Using my phone as backup internet even if slow worked good enough to get me on the site to pay my bill. To be honest I would have been fine a few days and might (definitely will) run a power outage drill soon. No I am exhausted! Enjoy today’s post and learn from my mistake for you don’t have to.
Have you had your power or other utility cut off? Have you been affected by long power outages? Have you done a power outage drill?If so let me know in the comments.
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Similar situation here, family in chaos from unplanned work stuff, we had just paid for our PO Box and had our mail from home forwarded there. Sadly, we found out weeks later that only some of our mail was forwarding, and they had returned a huge load of our bills, to include a shutoff notice.
They shut it off without a notice that we had received on a friday. By the time we worked out the details, it was going to be until tuesday since for some unknown reason, they had shut it off at the pole, which required a tech to turn it back on.
Luckily we knew exactly where to find bulk industrial sales of dry ice, filled up the fridge and freezers, and kept them closed for the days to keep the cold in. We have candles and flashlights well covered, a butane stove (great heat output and the canisters are easier to deal with IMHO. We have a gas furnace, but the pump to push the water around the house is electric, sad reality. Luckily we have good warm clothing, extra blankets ready, and an indoor safe propane heater. Heat one room only, and all is good.
We have most of our household electronics on battery backup systems (voltage regulation for bad power areas keeps your electronics from getting screwed up over time), so we just turn everything off, and use the backups to keep the phones charged. Longer term would have us cranking to charge a backup cell battery, or using some small solar panels to keep communication up.
In the end it wasn’t very difficult, we had what we needed and knew how to use it, and we now happily have calendar reminders for important bills instead of just paying as they come in. And we always have a what if plan, should the postal service screw up, as they are known to do in our area.
I get scatterbrained sometimes too, but I have an honest question for you…Would YOU stay late at a job where people are going to bitch at you because they didn’t pay THEIR bill on time? I work at this TYPE of job, and I do NOT get paid overtime FOR ANYTHING. So I go home at quitting time, because I get tired of getting bitched at for things I don’t control. I am very glad that things worked out ok (except for the sleep deprivation, that sucks).
I experienced seven long days w/out power in 90+ degree heat in the aftermath of hurricane this past season. I empathize with anyone who suffers w/o power. My neighborhood pitched in to help some elderly people who could have died otherwise. Power redundancy should be at the top of everyone’s listed. A point emphasized by Frankenstorm Sandy. And, we should get to know our neighbors. I was very happy for the sense of community during those mean hot days.
I am particular about exactly where i live and what sort of natural disasters are possible or more frequent in those areas. Not everything can be avoided, but personally, i look at elevation, storm possibilities, fault lines, etc. Here, snow is our biggest challenge, and that’s just par for the course, stay stocked and stay warm. I lived in central texas for 4 years, and remember tornado seasons. I left as soon as I could.
I understand if there’s no other options, but most people do have options.
I had a similar experience with DirecTV about 6 years ago….forgot to pay the bill, woke up Christmas morning with no TV service….and we never turned it back on.
We’ve not paid for TV service in 6 years….saving $85/month. Do the math.
We now use a Roku box across our internet connection, and broadcast TV, when we watch any. Mostly, we just don’t watch a lot of TV. I’m good with that.
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I woke up last week or so to no power after a thunderstorm here in TN. Having recently listened to the TSP podcast I went and got the inverter and hooked it up to the van. I ran an extension cord up to the tankless water heater. It is a gas model but needs 120VAC for control power. Ah hot shower before I go in on the nightshift. Power came back on right after, but having the inverter didn’t make me rushed or late. I will be working towards a bigger inverter and then a generator purchase. After that I’d like to have a few solar panels charging a battery bank. I hope to build some myself to keep the costs down. Great article.
Where I live, power is an on and off thing. Don’t know what it is, but we can go for months just fine, and then others its constantly going out. Every time we get a storm, you are guaranteed the power will go out. I came home one night in complete darkness. Stepped in the house, grabbed the oil lamps and before you knew it, there was light. Kids woke up scared from the storm, but thanks to the lights, they were fine. I ended up listening to audio books on an old mp3 player till I feel asleep that night. I took up collecting the oil lamps at garage sales this summer, got many for .50 cents apiece. I also keep plenty of frozen pop bottles in a freezer, mostly for my lunch box, but helps keep the frig cool till the power comes back on.
I’m pretty forgetful too, so what I do is keep a positive balance with the utility companies. I figure what the most expensive month of the year is, and pay that much in once ahead of time, then pay my bills as if it wasn’t there. If I pay late, it’s no big deal because it comes out of the balance, so my payment is just replenishing my backup. It’s kind of like insurance, but it doesn’t cost anything. Also gives some slack in case of job loss or other problems.
Thats actually a pretty good idea!
I’ve done that more than once for the same reasons; my ‘filing system’ is more of a ‘piling system’ and stuff gets lost in the piles.
Lucky for me, we’re so rural, with so few people that eveybody knows everybody and the gal from our little power co-op will call and ask if I lost the bill again. You have to be a bonafide deadbeat to get your power shut off around here.
What kills me is that I live in a small town >40K and our electric company is a co-op…
I guess ‘small’ is relative, LOL! The COUNTY I live in is roughly the size of Connecticut and has fewer than 6500 people. 4000 of them live in the only actual town, the rest of us are spread out here, there and beyond – mostly beyond.
We have alot of power outages due to the squirrels. I should get a pellet rifle and stock up the freezer. We have so many, even the cats, owls and hawks can’t keep their numbers down. But when the transformer gets him a squirrel, it sounds like a 1/4 of dynamite as our lights go out. Luckily we havent been without power more than an hour or so.
Last Summer they added new equipment locally and the whole town was blacked out. It was a planned outage so we were ready for the 3hours of no power. The only problem I had was my wife getting very impatient, even Nervous toward the end of the outage.
I want to try going without it longer sometime just to assess our redundancy needs. Any idea how i can get her to not fret so much? What will we/she do if we are without for an extended period if a planned temp outage upsets her? If budget wasnt a factor, the answer would be easier, but..
Thats a funny story!! LOL I`m a bit forgetful too!! I have practiced with outages, although not planned. I learned from them, no backup gen yet. I do have a wood stove, one of those 75% efficient types. ( no catalitic converter Less maintenance ). It is not a cook stove but could be used that way. Several types of lighting battery,coleman, oil lamps, and candles. With open flame being my least favorite. But the best thing ( in a country home) is a well pump that can pressurize my water system. for that I chose the model that is a hand pump, but can be converted to DC power should we choose later. Thus negating the need for a generator bigger than 2500 watts. I`m not saying we have a lock on it ,it works for us with our needs and situation. Also I work as a lineman so I expect the power to go out! Like your honesty and desire to inform/learn. Thank you David