January 28, 2004
Electric bill of Doom
Two pieces of mail awaited me. One was St Viator asking me for money. The second was the power bill. I opened the power bill and glanced at the sum. Then I realised this wasn't my credit card bill, it was my electric bill, and HOLY JESUS GOD why was it $620??? What the hell was short-circuited? The previous month had been estimated, so maybe this had been going on since Thanksgiving. But I was away for amonth of that, so it should be lower.
That's when I noticed that the previous estimated reading as 34,100-some and the new reading as 43,400-some. Hmm. A suspicious concordance of digits. A quick trip out to the meter confirmed that the mouth-breather that took the reading just screwed it up---it's really 34,400-some. Whew. Well, I'll call them first thing in the morning. Easily fixed. Still, quite the panic moment.
UPDATE: I just went ahead and called, because duh, they had night staff too. And I gave the woman a number off the meter (more or less; the last three digits are off, but it'll come out in the wash next month), she wrote it down, and they'll send me a fixed bill. Whew.
"A proper baseball team is composed of gentlemen who remember to wear hats outdoors and observe traditional patterns, such as taking turns and spitting on their hands." --Miss Manners
Posted by blahedo at 11:20pm on 28 Jan 2004