- Coffee
- Cats
- Cuddling
- (and Reality Television)
- (and Purple and Pink - tied.)
And those of you who I've loved enough to let you see my angry side know I HATE these three things:
- Verizon
- Sallie Mae
- Sitting in traffic
I have a new enemy, and that is National Grid Electric. They have asses where their souls should be.
I moved to the town of Everett this January during what we all know has been the worst winter in the history of New England. After two power outages that lastest entire days, I wasn't so excited about about the move or NG's lack of efficiency at getting the electricity back up and running. Right around the time of Outage Number Two I received a letter in the mail telling me that there would be service interruption for Unit 1R. 1R sounds like me, I thought, even though my apartment is number 2. I am on the first floor and if you face my house, I am on the right. Well, I'll call and make sure, I thought - even though I'd already received a bill. Now couple this with the fact that even after the storm was over and power was back up, I had about half power. My entire kitchen didn't work - not enough power for the fridge to run consistently or for my stove to function at all. And then later the hot water... that was the last straw.
So I call, tell them about the letter, tell them I have dim power, my kitchen appliances don't work (I don't know about you, but I feel a working kitchen is a necessity) and ask them what's going on, and they say the two are un-related. I should not experience service interruption (ON. UNIT. 1R.) and they'd send someone out to look at it. Long story already too long, NG comes out three times, I tell them I'm in Unit 1R, they can't find the problem. They tell me it's my landlord's fault, my landlord (who is an electrician) cannot find the problem and attempts to call NG several times to sort it out and they won't come out again to the property to meet with him, because they've essentially met their quota of times trying to help me, and, as they claim, it's not their fault.
I finally get the two of them to actually converse and the light bulb (pun intended) goes on. I am being billed for the power on the second floor. And they've been checking Meter 2, which, of course, is running efficiently. Seriously. Seriously. Isn't that what I asked about when you sent that nasty letter about shutting off my power? Seriously. And what part of 1R do the stupid faces of the stupid socially inept guys who come out to pretend to fix my power not understand? Stupid NG Guy #1 took a look at my breaker, a look at the meter, and a look at my un-working kitchen, scratched his head and said, "Wow, I've never seen this before." And then proceeded to tell me my fireplace was very nice and could he have a glass of ice water? I.Don't.Have.Ice.My. Refrigerator.Isn't.Running. Here, let me get some snow and from the front stoop and put it in this lukewarm brita water for you. And we aren't making small talk if you can't fix my power.
Three National Grid visits, two cold showers (and others at the gym, and other days I decided to say screw it and be stinky), too many fast food runs, and several screaming phone calls later (with customer "service" reps telling me to calm down - really!?!? let me take your stove and hot shower away for even a day and then you tell me you aren't at least a little bit grumpy), I have full power restored. Thirteen days later. One hot shower, an episode of The Bachelor (which was, mind you, interrupted for 3 minutes on the DVR when they had to turn my breaker off and back on again) and I'm feeling slightly more sane. But I will never forget my pioneer days during the first couple weeks of February (yes, the settlers took many cold showers, and of course made lots of trips to McDonald's).
I.HATE.YOU.NATIONAL.GRID. (Even more than Verizon. And that is a lot.)
