Friday, May 28, 2010

Problems with power?


Thank god it wasn't the electrician!!!

Geez. If it's not MegaCable, or Tel Mex, what could possibly go wrong?

Oh. I know.

Silly,  CFE.

There are many, MANY things that I took for granted back home, and one of them was, the good ole power company. If your power shut off, there was always an 800, if not a local emergency number that you could call, INSTANTLY make a report, and have a technician out to your home within a few hours. Here, they "offer" you that same service. Except forget to answer the phone.

After visiting the local office in the morning, filing a report, and were guaranteed that it would be serviced that day,  we returned late that evening to find again, no power. The fridge was no longer cold, but cool-ish. It was hotter than hell. And the kids.... smelled horrible.  And there we were, at 9 pm, hungry, hot and smelly.  After repeatedly calling CFE and no one answering. Kiddos and I took off for some good Oscarin's hot dogs, smothered with bacon, grilled onions, chile and whatever else you could load on that thing.... while hubby came up with a master plan.

And that's when he became a mexiCAN.

A quick stop over at Home Depot for 15 m of electrical wire and we were on our way to much needed showers and a cool airdry. Yes. My husband did something illegal. Surprised? Back home, he would have checked all the fuses and then waited patiently for the electrical company to arrive. But here? There are no guarantees. And certainly no guarantee that someone is going to come and fix the problem at now 10:00 at night. And with a somewhat pissy wife and two smelly children chirping in his ear, he hooked up the wire to the power box and jumped the fence to the neighbors (who just happened to move out the day before!) and WHOILA!!!! 

Don't get upset. It was just for the night, to cool the house and save the remnants of our food. And hose off the kids. It was all disconnected by morning, when my hubby took the time and figured out the problem himself. (CFE never showed.) I never thought that we would approve of this radical method, but hey, my neighbor was stealing my internet.

So we're even.

9 comments:

Vadose said...

Love it!

OK, first, I'm not surprised, but am pleased. I love that ingenuity.

Second, in the States we had some neighbors move in, and a month later realized they HAD NEVER HOOKED UP to the power grid. They'd been jacking power from our laundry room. (And our laundry soap!) The dude was Salvadorian, but the chick was a chilanga. Then one day she had the balls to tell my husband, "never trust a chilanga. We steal." but she said it like it was a joke. Hm.

Anyway, that's only somewhat related, but your post brought back some memories. :) I'm glad you found a solution for the night. Hooray for handy husbands!

Leslie Harris said...

You gotta do what you gotta do! I hate having to spend a night without electricity. Good thing that your Hubby knew what to do! :)

And I LOVE the new blog look! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow! jeez! at first I was like offended by you maam complaining like that about my country specially bout my city Guadalajara but I guess u right I guess living here is like living in hell I dunno, well try to live in guatemala or the middle east, china? and then u realize life here is not that bad, anyway dont take it personal I just found myself an excuse to practice my english hahaha

whish you have a better time here at my city though :)

keep us posted

Gringa-n-Mexico said...

LOL he made a "diablito!" Awesome. Some other bloggers out there *ahem* might just have one of those for their air con. But not from the neighbors lol - strait from the pole! :P

bordersaside said...

This is great, there are plenty of times that, well like Leslie said you gotta do what you gotta do. And if we were not here I would have never been ok with. One of our neighbors had this problem in our first house and they hooked up to us but told us and payed part of our bill so it was cool. Although later a diff couple moved in and our electric skyrocketed this one didn't ask or pay. Thankfully if you bring proof the electric company is pretty forgiving and we didn't have to pay the whole bill.
Anyway props for doing what it takes to get the kids bathed and keeping food from spoiling. ;)

Laura said...

Where we lived in Estado de Mexico, more people stole money than actually paid for it!!! And of course the transformer blew out all the time because so many people were stealing electricity. We did not have electricity many times for a week at a time. It was awful!!!

Not anymore said...

oh my god, you totally just described a real day in my life when I was in mexico down to the smelly, hungry, sweaty kids, and a pissy wife "Do something" So funny. We had some type of problem like we just moved in and the previous renters - before we bought the house, never paid their rent and cfe turned on the power but like a week later came and turned if off till we paid the money the OTHER people owed. So a neighbor said just hook it up illegally, I think they didn't even have to go to the neighbors, all they had to do was bipass the box. Does that make sense?

The other thing is that when you are in mexico isn't your electricity going out such a common thing like weekly, sometimes daily?

Refried Dreamer said...

Vadose: haha... never would have guessed that you had that problem in the States.Maybe that's our problem with assuming that everyone does the same. I guess you never know!

Leslie: THanks. I like it too. Just a few more tweaks to take care of!

JJCuar: Welcome to my blog. Don't take offense. I love living in GDL, however.... no matter where you choose to live, there are ups and downs. And the electricity, sucks. (But the food is amazing! :) You're right, it could be worse... and I'm fine right where we're at!

Gringa: haha....you're already adjusted! Good for you!

Amanda: Sorry you guys dealt with the same problem. Not that I condone what we did...it was a last minute savior late at night and by morning it was disconnected and hubby figured out the problem himself... but damn, it seems like with all the difficulties getting things done sometimes, we did what we had to do. I agree with you though. If the neighbors had been there, we would have asked, but they weren't. I doubt that it would have been that costly. However, it still seems to me that the companies here are more than willing to take your money, but when shit hits the fan, you're on your own.

Laura: Damn. THat doesn't surprise me. I can see that being a problem. At the shop, I know our power is being cut into, as well as our internet. It'd be nice though if the CFE would take a little more control and start monitoring and SeRVICING their clients and hopefully, both unify and eliminate this type of problem.

PVG: I hear you! That sucks. We were going to rent another local... and in the middle of the contract, we started putting all the serices in our name and of course, paying off all the debt behind it. (to be reimbursed.) The contract fell through, and of course, guess who footed the bill? Maybe that was our reality "Welcome to Mexico". Live and learn.

Anonymous said...

Dude, "don't get upset?!" Your husband's a genius, well done!

About Me

My photo
I've been living in Mexico now for about a two years with my hubby and 2 kids. Not exactly by choice, but we're here nonetheless. Luckily, I live with quite a few of the accomodations that i was used to in the states. In spite of those convienences, we also have a water tank with asbestos, outdated electricity, massive amounts of dust, caterpillars that burn your skin, and thousands of windshield washers on every street corner. My kiddos and I are learning to speak spanish and adjust to life away from our family and friends in the States.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails