Power to the Bureaucracy! - Tuesday, 21 June

One final update on my two-day power outage.

I went out for a bite of breakfast this morning and a little while after I returned, my next-door neighbor knocked on my door to see if my power was still out.  She had just called the power company and learned that the city inspector had approved the work the electrician did yesterday, but that the power company's worker had to enter each apartment to reconnect the power, that he would arrive "sometime today," and that the owner needed to let them into the apartment to do the work.  Hmmm.  Perhaps a day of catching up on my reading!

Helpful Neighbor

Another Helpful Neighbor!

A bit later I heard some voices in the hallway.  The worker was there, and my neighbor's power had just been restored.  But the next hurdle was that I couldn't authorize the restoration of power for my apartment, the owner had to call the company to do so.  Just then an upstairs neighbor came down the stairs; she offered to call the owners on her mobile.  Happily, she reached them right away, they called the power company, and the worker got the word from his "chef" ("boss") that he could enter the door I was holding open for him!  He just needed to look at some numbers on the fusebox, then go back into the hall and flip a switch.  And, voila, I had power! 

And then there was light in the staircase.  And then the elevator was working!  What luxury!  When I said I was going to camp out in Paris for a week I didn't mean it literally.

I think it's kind of strange that there seems to be no system for notifying owners of problems, status, next steps, etc.  If my next-door neighbor hadn't called the power company and I hadn't happened to be here when she received an update, I'd still be sitting here in the dark.  So thanks to my very helpful neighbors!