United Illuminating

Yesterday, we started our hot, hot day at the beach. It was awesome, and fortunately, we all took showers when we got home. Later we drove up to our favorite spot, The Christmas Tree Shop, did a little shopping and that's when all the fun started. A very large thunderstorm came up very quickly. We all had dinner across the parking lot. I dropped everyone off, then made a run for it. I entered the restaurant after running through a parking lot that became a river and looked like I'd just gotten out of the shower!!

After eating dinner soaked! we went back to my mom's. We were not home 30 minutes when the electric went out. I'd have to say it was a bit surprising as the storm clearly never made it to my mom's area. It was totally dry there and much hotter. Even more strange is the recent history of her street, which used to never lose power, even when all the streets around us were dark. For the last 3 weeks, this is the fourth time they have been the only street to lose power.

Needless to say, it was hot last night. I am sure today will only get worse. My mom fully expected the power to be back on this morning, as the longest she has been without power was 8 hours. However, today at 11, still no power.

Last night, my brother called UI. Never in my life, other than that experience we had last year with United Airlines, have I ever encountered worse customer service. We called, pressed all the right buttons, and waited an HOUR for anyone to answer our call. When the woman finally did she said this, "We are aware of that outage and we cannot promise any estimated time of restored power." That was it. One street to them is nothing I guess!!

It's amazing to me that these power and gas companies need to double our bills and take away any kind of reliable service. There was no explanation, not even a sign of a UI truck or any estimation of when we might expect to regain power. How miserable!

So, here I am at my brother's, trying to get a little cool after a sleepless night of all of us in my mom's living room. I guess God is trying to give us a hint of what it might be like for T in Cameroon! No updates in two days - poor Em asked me last night if we could call him, she misses him and is sure that there must be some way to call him. Didn't he bring his cellphone? she asked me. Oh, to have a world so small!! and comfortable!!