I would like to give a shout out to the guy who lives at XYZ and a HALF Street for not paying his electric bill the past few months. Because of him, my house (at XYZ Street, no half) had it’s power shut off on Friday, but I didn’t find it until today (Monday) because I was staying at Jef’s. So that’s four days of no power to my fridge or freezer, therefore every bit inside had to be thrown away. Milk… condiments… cheese… leftovers… frozen chicken… ice cream. I spent 2 hours on the phone w/ the power company trying to figure it out what happened - I pay my bills on time, and my power wasn’t SCHEDULED to be shut off, yet why the red tag on my meter an no response to the obsessive flicking on and off of the switches? After talking to 3 account reps at Austin Utility Company, a dispatcher and a maintenance person at my leasing office, they figured out the problem (”We’re so sorry for the inconvenience. But you can imagine how easy it is for the street names to get mixed up.”). They promised to send someone to turn the power back on, but I didn’t want to wait around any longer in the 38-degree house. I heard from my neighbor that my porch light turned on while I was on my way back to Jef’s, so I’ll go check it out tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll be calling their Claims Dept to figure out some kind of reimbursement.

BEFORE | AFTER