Power Outage

 At about 520 this morning, I was wide awake.  I was surprised by this, because last night, although I had planned to go to bed fairly early, I was still wide awake, reading, after 1 PM.  Some short time after that, as I was sitting in the recliner, I decided I needed to rest my eyes, and cover up snugly.  I went to bed after 2 AM.

So, the surprise. When I woke up,  I was not sure why I woke up.  I needed to use the bathroom, and Haiku was asking for something to eat. But, I realized that there was moonlight outside, but no lights inside.  So, I wondered if I really woke up because there was no ambient noise from the electronics and electrical appliances in my house.  I'll never know. 

The other surprise was that I had my phone on the nightstand.  I usually leave the phone in the living room, being charged, on the computer desk, on the dining table or on my dresser, across the room from the night table.  I remember thinking, when I went to bed last night, that I really needed to start keeping my phone on the nightstand.  Well, it was fortuitous last night.  I was able to check the Lubbock Power and Light website for power outages.  There were 4, but from the website, I could not tell if my house was in one of those areas, or not. So, I called the automated power outage report site, and was told that indeed, my home was in the reported power outage area.  The projected repair time was 530, but by the time I made the call, it was a little after 530.  So, I left my number to receive a call back when the repairs were completed.  I did receive the call back about 559.  

Power outages used to be more common in Lubbock, but that was years ago, when I received services from Southwest Public Service, which, I believe, now is Xcel.   Some time ago, the City of Lubbock decided they could provide the citizens of Lubbock electric power at a better rate and more reliably than Xcel.  I think this amounts to a monopoly, but who wants to know what I think.  The one thing I will say is that since I have used Lubbock Power and Light, I have had fewer power outages and better service.