power down

Progress Energy cut off our electricity yesterday. That was a surprise, and caused a brief bit of panic.

In September, we received $250 in assistance from Mid-Florida Community Services - they paid the money directly to Progress - but that still left about $90 outstanding. Just over half a month's bill.

They have never cut us off before the 8th of the month before. Lisa's disability check comes on or about the 3rd, so I assumed that we would be OK. Apparently so did a few other people on our block; when the man returned in the evening to turn us on again, he also turned at least three other houses back on.

My folks were kind enough to pay the outstanding balance by phone. We could have survived a few days without power but the food in our fridge and freezer would not.

At least the outage gave me a good excuse to do some reading. I am currently working my way through "Plains of Passage", the fourth book in the "Clan of the Cave Bear" series. And it also inspired me to turn the TV back off this morning once I had seen our local weather forecast, rather than leaving it on as background noise while checking my email and doing the usual Internet stuff that I do every day.