Living Without Electricity!

We just went through two days of having no electricity in our home!
Let me explain how that happened...

Since Nanu had the whole week off for Thanksgiving, he decided to get some (arbitrary!) electrical upgrades done to our house.

So on Monday, he called up the electricity dept. and asked them to disconnect our electricity. With the help of a friend, he installed a new meter outside our house, and upped the electric input into our house from a 100 amps to 200 amps.

When he called the electric company that evening to turn on the electricity, he was in for a rude shock.

"You first need to get a city permit to do this kind of upgrade," said the city official. Realizing this could become a serious issue, he ran to the City Center and got the permit.

Then he was in for a ruder shock. "You need to use a licensed electrician certified by the city of Carbondale to do this kind of job," said another official, refusing to turn on our electricity.

Now we had not only done the work without a permit, but we'd also done it without a licensed electrician. This was the first we'd heard of this rule.

So we went that night without any electricity. The next morning, Nanu paid big bucks to get a certified electrician to basically look over what had already been done and say it had been done right. Then he had to wait for the city inspector to come in and inspect the work and pass his stamp of approval.

By the time this happened, the guy who was supposed to come to our place and turn on the electricity had already left for the day. So this meant we had to go a second day without electricity in the house.

Things got sorted the next day, when our lights came back on.
But the two nights we endured without electricity, was kind of fun in a strange way.

We got to really talk to each other, spend quality time and do the things we'd been missing out on for quite a while - like playing board games by candlelight!

I got the chance to finally use all the myriad candles and candle holders scattered all over my house and though Nanu went through withdrawal symptoms - being unable to use his computer or watch TV - we pretty much enjoyed the experience.

It felt a little like getting back to basics, going back to the time when there was no digital entertainment or electricity for that matter. Just pure companionship.

Who'd think that conversations by candlelight would be so fun?