Electric frustrations

A year-and-a-half or so ago, I was walking toward our house from across the street where there is a little shop. I saw four Kyrgyz men standing outside our house, which always makes me nervous, and when I approached, they started telling me they were going to disconnect our electricity because we hadn't paid our bill. Well, we'd just gotten our bill only a day or two before, so it wasn't due yet, but as I tried to explain it to them, all they did was laugh and smirk like idiots, and then went ahead and turned off our power. I was SOO mad at them! Steve had to go to the electric company the next day and get it all straightened out; it was a mistake, of course. So...2 days ago, when I looked out the window and saw another group of 4 men from the electric company, I opted NOT to go out and be humiliated by them again, and watched one of them climb up our power pole and, again, disconnect the power to our house! This was t 3:30 p.m. I texted Steve to let him know what was going on, and started getting candles ready and psyching the kids up for a candlelight evening of playing games. The house was warm, thanks to our lovely coal heat, and all went well. Yesterday morning, Steve made another trip to the electric company, and once again, it was "a mistake." The guys were back by 9:30, rehooking our power. What a waste of time! We enjoyed the electriity for about 4 hours, until it was switched off for the usual power cuts, along with our water, which was turned off for who-knows-why all afternoon. Like I always say, "If it's not one thing, it's another!"

Finally back on here

After a friendly nudge from my old college roomie, and realizing I've not been on here in over 2 months, I'm going to attempt to blog again. With frequent power outages, trying to do Christmas baking, and my kids needing the computer for school when the power IS on, I've not been online nearly as much as usual!

We had our first Christmas party of the season yesterday. 10 3rd-year university students came over...our living room was like a museum! The girls (9 of them and 1 guy) were taking pictures of our tree with their cell phone cameras, and oohing and ahhing over my measly little decorations. I just have a little 3-D Christmas village puzzle and a few other knick-knacks on top of our entertainment center, and our Fontanini nativity set. But I guess in a land where no one decorates for Christmas, it was impressive!

In fitting with the title of my blog, we've struggled with a variety of challenges in the past couple of months, including perpetual car issues that are still not resolved, a burnt-out water heater in the kitchen, constant power outages, several afternoons where our water was turned off for unknown reasons, and almost-daily puffs of smoke and coal dust coming into our house from our lovely, rustic coal heating "system." Since electric heat has been banned for the winter, the air is filled with coal dust and smoke. Our neighbors had their electric water heaters turned off by the electric company...I'm afraid we'll be next! It's unbelieveable how the government runs itself here! Of course, none of the "bigwigs" ever have their power turned off or limited in any way!