and i came home to my electricity cut off

at first i thought the outside bulb had burnt out. as i was leaving for work this morning i noticed that i left it on, but i was already in motion and as much as i'm a "turn off the light when you leave" nerd, i shrugged it off.

and now, fresh from work and the grocery store, i'm carrying my frozen fake brats, buns, and beer up the stairs and hit the switch for the stairwell light.

no go (of course, you already know my power's out. i didn't)

"damn, two bulbs out? when did i leave thi-- aw crap."

i enter the apt and everything is dark. which is initially okay, because it's night time and i hadn't left any internal lights on.

i peek through the living room towards the office and notice that the computer is still on.

*scrunch face* huh?

take shoes off and head into kitchen to put away grocer-- aw crap. the clock on the stove is off. the clock on the microwave is off. the refridgerator is off. dump the groceries on the floor.

i walk through the rest of the apt flipping light switches on and off. no good. nuthin.

i go into the office and stare at the computer. i think about it a bit, and come to the conclusion that, because the wall outlets they are plugged into share the wall with the public stairwell, they must be on a different line. that's nice at least.

so now i head down to the basement to check the fuse box. there's four of them, and none are marked. so i open them all and stare at fuses that all indicate "on."

crap.

i call my landlord and leave a voice message.

at this point, i should probably tell you that the only correspondence i've recieved from my local power company was in regard to my previous residence and the confirmation of the closing of that account. that was months ago. many months ago.

the last apt i moved into, i believe that my rental agency handled all the transfering of utilities into rentee's names, etc... and i guess i just assumed that the same would happen here.

wrong.

but the question is, if _i_ hadn't been recieving the, "YO! pay up before we axe your ass!" notices, who the heck was? it seems strange that my landlord could have been recieving them, but not telling me.

and only _now_ does it come to mind that this apt house used to be owned by some sketchy, out of state (which appearantly is not legal) landlord, and that my current landlord recently purchased this place (where recently == just months before i moved in).

so maybe sketcho, out of state landlord is cackling in his out of state house/apt/condo/whatever with a million "PAST DUE" notices magnetically suspended on his refridgerator door.

anyhow, after checking the fuses in the basement, i check the mail and see that my package from cheap-cds has arrived... which in normally a joyous occasion, but with no ability to listen to them tonight, it only aggitates me. curses.

back up stairs i sit down in front of the computer to waste time blogging and surfing... login to the machine (strange, taking forever), try to launch browser-- aw crap. cable modem and router are plugged in over in the living room. no juice. crap crap crap.

so i grab my lighter and head out to the gas station to buy some smokes. i know, weak, but hey... i have no power (ha! get it! okay... sorry)

on the way, i stop by zingermans to get some food. i run into, ian, my new bread counter friend and chat for a while. during this chat, the deli line become unbearably long. i leave to forage for food elsewhere.

it takes me a couple minutes of walking slowly, thinking about my current predicament, and thinking about just wandering the streets tonight, to decide that a) i don't need smokes, and b) i should go eat at tio's.

eating at tio's makes me happy for two reasons tonight.
1) good mexican food. who woulda thunk it out here.
2) i realize that there's an extension cord in the basement just begging to be brought into my apt to power my stereo, the cable modem, and the router. screw the fridge. there's nothing in there anyhow.

back in the apt, with the liberated extension cord, staring at groceries on the floor, listening to slant 6/fugazi/ida, and trying to drink the beer before it gets too warm.

((dte comes in the morning to switch me back on... i hope))