Well, our power was cut off last Wednesday, during the worst heat wave in years in Los Angeles. The exterior temp was 108 in Eagle Rock this afternoon, according to our van, and 106 in South Central where we live. That’s Arizona-hot, and I didn’t actually mind it too much during the day. Sunny heat I understand. But now I’m sitting at my computer well past 10pm, wearing a headlamp to see my way around our pitch-dark apartment, sweating in at least 95 degree dead calm humidity. bleah.
Thank God for our gracious upstairs neighbor who let me run an extension cord out his window, into our kitchen, to power our refrigerator and this computer. Adding the router and a fan would have been too much load, though, so I’m scabbing bandwidth off another (unwitting) neighbor and squinting at my black keyboard in the darkness.
The power will be back on by Tuesday– yup, it’s a three day weekend, with rolling blackouts expected. A blackout didn’t do this to us: it was my own procrastination. Our dear neighbors the Ordaz family moved out, and the utility bill we shared was in his name. He warned me that he’d be cutting it off when he left, and I should put it in my name. I did that with the gas bill, but didn’t realize the electrical bill was also shared with them! The power was cut off after a long month of grace (which made me think all was well, and wonder when my upstairs neighbor would bring the electrical bill to me to share).
Kudos and thanks to the Peters family who are letting us stay in their wonderful cool spacious home this weekend while they are away.
There must be some allegory or metaphorical comparison I ought to draw at this point but I can’t think with rivulets of perspiration running into my eyes, soaking my shirt.
Signing off, so I can ride my bike back to the Peters’ sanctuary and join my family…
– Mr. Sweaty-in-the-Dark
