Off again, on again....opps, off AGAIN *sigh*

I am talking about electricity.

In Hawaii, it is to be expected that at any given time, no rain, no wind that suddenly you have no power. After 40 years its nothing new. For the most part, the power lines are above ground...which makes for lovely vistas....mountains - power lines and poles. Ocean? Also power lines and poles. On the south side of the island of Oahu it is very exciting in high winds and big storms since the last time we had those conditions, 18 poles went down on the one and only access road into the area. Fun, fun, fun. Not.

Even in areas that are "progressive" like Mililani, where the lines are supposed to be underground it can be exciting. Why you ask? Welllll....when an underground line goes out HECO (Hawaiian Electric Co ) and HawTel (Hawaiian Telephone...the only local provider of telephone service ) both run the lines up the streetlights, tie them off and leave them for years. Never mind its against the township codes for above ground lines. Then fun things happen....one of the light poles, corroded by years of neglect and rust, fell on Tia and Dave's truck a few years back. Does that change things ...absolutely NOT.

So when we moved to the mainland I was thrilled thinking the power would be more stable. Hahahahahahaha. Wrong.

Yesterday, for the first time in literally weeks, I decided to cook. Got a small roast started in the crockpot...woohoo, home cookin'!! Lookin' good, smellin' good...and poof. No power. Ok...no problem thinks me to myself..I will put it on the stove, since it is gas. Wrong. Apparently the stove ( actually propane and not gas ) has an electric starter. Oh joy. No cooking that way.

Called the power company...yup, its out and the operator, who tells me she has 30 calls on hold, asks " are you in Angel Fire" ....yes I say, and she says " yes there is an outage " and hangs up on me ( I had called on the cell phone since the land line uses...you guessed it....electricity). Wow. At least in Hawaii they will tell you what areas have outages and when estimated repairs will be made.

Ok....so eventually the power does come back on and by 9pm the meat was done even though the potatos and carrots were still crunchy. Edible...both the dogs and I were thrilled ( ok, I was thrilled , the dogs were ambivalent but hungry...they are cute but very discriminating when it comes to food ) and we ate.

So off to bed. For some reason the master bedroom is hot, even in 40 degree weather , with the window open and the fan going. The master bath, which is attached, is COLD. Frozen buns is what you get when you sit on the throne, no matter how warm the bedroom is. What woke me was the fan going off...and the night light being dark. "Sigh"....and "bigger sigh".

Eventually ...with both the dogs and me panting...it did come back on. Here again, no wind, no rain and here the lines are actually underground. Makes ya wonder, doesnt it?

Good thing I have lots of candles.