Lights Out

I woke up at 3:21 this morining and noticed that my bedroom fan was off. I thought this strange since I know I hadn't turned it off myself.

I stumbled out of bed thinking, oh god, they've turned off my electricity.

Since living in Brazil, I've discovered that dilenquent bill payment is handled a little differently than the U.S.

In the U.S., you receive a second bill which is usually just added to your next monthly bill, a third bill statement and then eventually a letter stating that if payment is not received then your utility will be cut off and being threatened and then sent onto creditors. Lots of warnings before actual disconnection occurs.

In Brazil, if the tenent didn't pay their bill, they will still turn off your electricity, cable, etc until it's paid. I learned this from trying to have my internet connected. The previous tenent's bill was unpaid. And also know this is not due to the person not leaving monies behind, it just wasn't paid.

My teaching partner had her electricity turned off about 3 weeks ago. She arrived home with her daughters one day and discovered it. She and her husband knew they had not paid their June electric bill. They hadn't paid June's bill because they had never received that month's bill and did not know what they owed. This is unusual though. The turning off process takes a bit of time, but it's completely random. Like in some instances 2 or 3 years later. So for a couple of months to cause a problem was a complete surprise to them.

So it seems that bills are attached more to the residence than your name. Thus, especially with the recent quick shut off of a friend, I was worried.

Needless to say, when I woke up at 3:21 this morning and discovered no electricity my first thought was, crap! I have an unpaid bill. So I then got up and tried to turn on my bedroom light. Nope. Bathroom, nothing. As I was walking down the hall out of the corner of my eye I saw some lightning. Perhaps it wasn't my electric bill, maybe there was something more going on.

I opened my apartment door and peered outside, dead quiet. I'm sure your surprised to hear that was what I discovered at 3:21 a.m. So, I walked out the door and began jumping around. Now you're probably wondering why this was my inclination. Well, our hallway lights are motion sensored so I was trying to activate them and jumping around made the most sense at 3:21 a.m.

Nothing happened from all the jumping. Then I walked down the hall toward the elevators. Pushed the button. Nothing. Our hallways are "open" to the outside through a grid-like cement pattern (the entire side of the building's like a cement trellace). I saw no lights at the two buildings nearby so I was feeling my storm power outage hunch confirmed.

I walked back into my apartment, looked out more windows. Saw more lightning and a lack of lights at other buildings.

Whew! It wasn't me. It was the storm. I decided to head back to bed, now able to sleep knowing it wasn't my problem only, it was all of us due to the weather. Sweet dreams until...

Then just as suddenly as they had gone off, they came back on. And of course, I had forgotten to turn off the lights I had tested so I suddenly woke up to a blinding light right over my head. After switching it off, I headed back to bed.

The power did go off and on one more time during the night. It was funny today to see who had noticed this and who hadn't during the night (only me), who had noticed in the morning (most) and who hadn't noticed at all (one).

So this time, I'm safe but I'm completely paranoid about when my turn with the electric company will happen. I'll update you when it does, but know that it won't be instant since I'll need my electricity to power my internet to do it.