Waiting for Entergy

Entergy said they’d send someone to hook up our gas service, sometime between 7am and 7pm.

That’s a nice big window. I got up before dawn, and got to our house around 6:30am, with a cup of coffee and a cranberry muffin.

A cold, miserable day of waiting. No heat, no hot water. That’s what we need the gas for.

I had a headache that just wouldn’t go away.

I tried to keep active, to keep the blood flowing, so I wouldn’t get too cold. Mostly I spent the day picking up trash from the street, and raking up debris from the street, and sweeping the street.

Animal rescue came by. These people are volunteers making the rounds of the city, looking for abandoned pets. I talked to this guy and he left me some food — dog food, since that’s all he had.

The electricians came by and finished their work, but their generator was broken, so they couldn’t really put it to the test. Now we begin the wait for a city electrical inspector. That may take a week or two.

A salesman came by from Window World and gave me a quote on replacing all the windows on our lower floor. Fifteen windows (I think) for three to four thousand dollars, depending on the options, installation included. Nice price. I’m not psyched about the white vinyl, but I’m not sure what alternatives we really have.

Xy was working on her resume for her job interview tomorrow. She came by and brought me a chicken sandwich from Rally’s.

My boss came by and we chatted. I hadn’t seen him in person since before the storm.

A pack of three big dogs came down the street and stared at me. I thought they might be hungry so I got the dog food the animal rescue guy had dropped off. I approached the dogs cautiously, ripped open the bag, and poured it out on the street corner. The biggest dog came over, sniffed it, took a bite — and turned away. The whole pack just moved on. What the hell? I thought dogs were always hungry.

Oh well, I’m sure the rats will enjoy it.

I listened to the radio all day. My admiration for the local Garland Robinette grows every time I hear his show. Today he was talking with the former mayor of Indianapolis, Bill Hudnut, who’s now on the board of the Urban Land Institute. It was interesting to hear the perspective of an informed outsider.

An Entergy truck rolled past at one point, and I flagged it down. The driver was on some other mission, though.

And I waited and waited and waited.

And finally, just around sundown, about 5:30pm, just as I was thinking they’d missed us and that I’d have to do this all again tomorrow — just then another Entergy truck rolled up. The driver said he didn’t have any paperwork from the city, but I assured him the inspector had come yesterday and everything had passed with flying colors.

He turned our gas on, and he even came inside and got the hot water heater started for me.

So: We now have heat and hot water and we can even cook on our stove!

(Note: Turning the gas on seemed to entail nothing more than opening the main valve by our meter. Maybe I missed something, but I think I could have done it myself. All the same, I’m more comfortable doing this legit.)

I returned to David’s house in the Irish Channel exhausted, head still pounding, but satisfied, and Xy made a nice home-cooked meal for all of us.