Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Today’s scheduled power outage was not all I thought it would be. Not that it didn’t happen as they said it would, but my plan to rest was not all that restful.

I had figured that I would work all night until the power went out and then sleep while there was no power. Well I tried, but it just didn’t work. First of all I slept before the power went out and then once I woke, the power was still out, so I decided that I would do something, but what?

Since it was cloudy and there was no sunlight, reading was out of the question, so what does one do then? I guess I could have done some cleaning, but the house was not all that messy. I decided that I would try to go back to sleep but as much as I tried, was unable to.

I then realized that when one is use to having electricity and then there is no electricity, one starts to get a bit depressed. Not that I felt the need for antidepressants, but I could feel I as not in a happy mood. Just the sight of a light bulb to read by makes would have made a world of difference. I would have loved to just have one little light bulb today to read by.

It then started to make me wonder about the people who can no longer afford to pay for electricity and live in a home that has no electricity. Coming home to a dark house can really be quite depressing I’m sure, especially when you know what it’s like to live having electricity.

I remember back in 2000, when I was returning to America for a visit, I took a taxi to the place I stay in Yerevan and on the way the driver was telling me about his life and how things are so bad financially that he can’t afford to pay his electricity and they had not had lights in their house for months. He told me about his two children and how his son who was 13 years old has to study by candlelight and how this is ruining his eyes. He told me how depressing it is for his whole family and he knew that this was not the way things should be, but with all the factories closed and unemployment so high, he didn’t see any relief coming anytime soon. He added that his story is not unusual and there were many people like him.

I asked him how much it was that he owed to the electric company and he said something like 25,000 dram. I guess the man was very convincing and not to say I was in a good mood, but being that I was leaving for America the next day and only in need of money to get to my parents house, when he dropped me off, I gave him a folded 5,000 dram note with a $100 bill inside it and told him to keep the change and use it to get his electricity turned back on. He thanked me and drove off.

The electricity should be coming back on soon (they said 6 PM) and I’ll have lights once again, though if they didn’t finish adjusting the power lines today, then they will once again turn the power off tomorrow. If that happens, I’m not staying home and will go visit with friends to keep busy until the lights come back on as this being in the dark and having nothing to do is no fun at all.

I need to take my portable generator to my mechanic’s to have the oil changed and everything adjusted on it so this winter when we do have unavoidable power outages, I can start it up and lead a semi-normal life.

The electricity came on right at 6 PM!!!


We just had an EARTHQUAKE!!! It was not very strong here. I’m sure it was in Iran or Azerbaijan.

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