So, for those of you who follow my other blog, I tried to start a painting-a-day segment... Day One was quite a success. I painted a painting, photographed it, and posted it online, both in my blog and in my online store. It sold within a few hours... Yay! Day Two; not so much... I went to get online and although I was connected to the internet, it was SOOO slow that I just watched that little rainbow thingy spin for two hours. I called the wonderful people at Comcast and was disconnected three or four times, then on hold for a half an hour, and when a representative finally picked up the call my phone started beeping in my ear to tell me the battery was about to die. It took several more phone calls and a visit to the local Comcast office to get my service running again. A day and a half later... I was back online. But, when I went to photograph my pictures the batteries in my camera were dead. It was day two in a series of nasty, rainy days, so I opted to wait for some better weather to go get new batteries. For those of you who are not familiar with my situation, I am a starving artist with no car and ride a bicycle for transportation. A very cool bicycle, but a bicycle none the less. Going into town in the pouring rain was not high on my list...
The rain had ended the next morning so I went into town for a cup of coffee and two double A's. Returned home with a nice caffeine buzz and was ready to get down to business. Photographed some work and went to put it into my computer when I realized that the batteries on my mouse were dead too! Still buzzing from my triple latte, it made sense to get back on the bike to go get more batteries. (I know that I could have taken the ones out of the camera, but I would need to buy some more anyway, so I thought, "What the heck.") To cut down on the length of this story I'll just say that with all I had to do that day, between life and my side job that I took painting a house... the actual house, not a picture of it... I never got back to the task of updating my blog.
The following morning I was up nice and early. It was a bright and beautiful morning. I took the dog for a longer walk than usual. I put on a pot of coffee... cold watery coffee. ( I have a Bunn coffee maker... It works on displacement and keeps a reservoir of hot water ready to go.) Since I really have only two outlets in the house, I thought I must have popped another breaker. I went to the cellar stairs, turned on the light... Damn bulb blew again... Walked down the dark stairs to find the fuse panel. Actually, I went to get the rechargeable flashlight first, which was not there because my brother had taken it with him. The breaker appeared to be fine... ?
Upon returning to the main floor I soon came to realize that there was no power at all. I could hear the town digging up the next street over and thought they must have cut the power. Oh well.
At about five that afternoon I realized that the workers had gone home, and I still had no power. I couldn't believe the town would do that with out notifying us. I shook my head and took the dog for his long afternoon walk...
Returning from the walk, I noticed a piece of paper tucked in the crack of the front door. It was a notice from the power company we'd been shut of for non-payment. Shit!
I texted my brother to let him know... No response. It took almost a week. I have power again.
The night before the power was shut off, I had gotten paid, so I went grocery shopping and filled my fridge and my freezer. I had no idea the billed hadn't been paid for months. I dug through the pile of mail in my brothers room for the bill thinking that I would pay it and get it turned back on. It was four hundred dollars! There is no stove of oven, no real fridge, and only a few working outlets in the house.
How the hell did the bill get that high? How long had it gone unpaid? All I know is that I have power again and once I dig out of the pile of dirty dishes and laundry, and the three inches of Golden Retriever hair that seem to have covered everything in the house, I'll get back to painting again!
Thanks for letting me vent.
