I'll share with you my timeline of events on how we are dealing with this so far.
Sunday 8:15 P.M. ~ The family, dressed in Steeler gear sit down to watch the much anticipated match up of the Steelers Vs Browns on NBC Sunday Night Football.
Sunday 8:20 P.M. ~ After the opening kickoff, the Browns trot out onto the field for the first possesion and we hear a large crash and the power goes out. Unbelievable.
Sunday 8:21 P.M. ~ My wife gathers the kids and I set out to find some light sources. I feel my way to the laundry room where I know we have a few flashlights sitting on a shelf. The first one I grab is dead. I set that aside and find another...........yeah, it's dead too. I find a 3rd flashlight, cross my fingers and press the button. It comes on...barely. It shines a nice dull yellow light. It at least gives me enough light to find the long grill lighter we had stuffed in a junk drawer. I go around the house lighting every candle I could find.
Sunday 8:30 P.M. ~ On to priority # 2, THE GAME! The only radio we have in the house is my daughters Strawberry Shortcake radio. We've put batteries in it as it's plugged in next to her bed all the time. I open up the back, and it takes "C" batteries. I head down to the junk drawer again. I see "D" batteries, Triple A's, Double A's, of course no C's. There's even a pack of 9 volts in there. I remember that my MP3 player has an FM radio tuner. I take the speakers off of my PC and plug them into the player and waalaa, we have sound! We set this up on the coffee table, and "watch" the radio.
Sunday 9:30 P.M. ~ My wife and both kids are sound asleep on the recliner. She looked uncomfortable so I woke her up to go up to bed. We let the kids sleep in our bed since the power was out and they were scared. I went back downstairs and continued to "watch" the radio. I heard a very loud "BOOM" then saw an explosion out of our window. Huge green, red, and blue sparks, it looked like Zambelli fireworks. It was so loud it literally shook the house. This proceeded to happen about 5 more times in a row. I heard crying from upstairs so I flew up the steps. My daughter was in our bed crying and shaking like I've never seen before. Just before I arrived in the bedroom my wife explained to our daughter that "everything was OK, it was just a Transformer". My daughter wasn't thinking of a transformer at the top of a utility pole, but a Transformer as in Autobots vs Decepticons. She saw the movie recently and was remembering the scene where the Transformers were outside the house looking in the windows. She thought this was happening to us. After a better explanation, she calmed down and soon fell back asleep.
Sunday 11:45 P.M. ~ I slept on the couch, since we didn't have any air or fans going and it was about 150 degrees out. My wife wouldn't open the bedroom windows because the 60 mph gusts of wind scared the kids. The transformer blew again. No one else woke up but me. This proceeded to happen at least 20 times throughout the night. I got very little sleep.
Monday 5:30 P.M. ~ I wake to the sounds of trucks working on the transformers on Corliss Street. I walk out on my deck and see, 3 Duquesne light trucks, 2 Comcast trucks, 2 Verizon trucks, and a few tree service trucks all lined up in front of each other.
Monday 6:45 P.M. ~ I notice cars coming down the street, then turning around and going back. I walk down and see why. A tree fell across the street bringing down the power, cable, and phone lines with it. That explains the bang and power going out last night.
Monday 10:00 P.M. ~ My wife takes all of our frozen meat and other products out of our freezer and takes them to her mother's house for temporary storage. She fills coolers with the perishable refrigerated products.
Monday 12:00 P.M. ~ I decide to call Duquesne light on my lunchbreak to see if they had a scheduled time of restoration. They had no idea that we were out of service or that there were live wires down. The gentleman said he would mark us down.
Monday 5:30 P.M. ~ Knowing that I was still out of power, I decide to stop and get a pizza on the way home. Bad move. It normally takes 15 minutes from the time I walk in and place the order to the time I leave. Since there were so many people without power, they were very busy. It took 45 minutes to get my pizza. By this time I was tired, hungry, and frustrated. Needless to say, I had a beer with my Pizza when I got home. It was warm.
Monday 7:30 P.M. ~ I'm informed we have no Hot water left. I thought since we had a gas water heater, it wouldn't be affected. Apparently I was wrong. We heated water on the stove to give the kids sponge baths.
Monday 9:30 P.M. ~ Since we had no power and I couldn't watch Prison Break or Monday Night Football, I decide to *gasp* read a book. I read 2 chapters and fell asleep.
Tuesday 3:00 A.M. ~ I wake to the sounds of trucks and workers removing the tree that fell across the street. I'm not upset. I figure this is a step towards getting service restored. I never fall back asleep.
Tuesday 6:30 A.M. ~ I realize that the Pittsburgh Public Works deptartment removed the tree, not Duquesne Light. I called Duquesne Light to use the automated system to get a service update. When I entered my phone number, the lovely computer voice informed me that there was no records for a service outage at my address. Great. She says she recorded the information. Thanks, sweet sweet computer voice.
Tuesday 7:30 A.M. ~ I get an ICE COLD shower before I drive my daughter to school on my way to work. That sucks.
Tuesday 1:00 P.M. ~ I decide to call Duquesne Light again to see if there is an update. I get a real person this time. She names 10 places that are due to be restored by Thursday and 10 places that are due to be restored by Friday. I asked her, "What about West End or Elliott?" She didn't mention that at all. She says..."Uhhhh, probably between Thursday or Friday". Gee thanks for that highly educational guess there. What a genius.
Tuesday 3:00 P.M. ~ I decide to blog about the experience. I have nothing better to do. I will update this when I have access.
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