The cable guys showed up at 7:50 in the morning, which was earlier than expected! They had assessed the situation on Friday unbeknownst to us, and realized that they needed to do some preliminary work on the cable outside the house. They spent Monday morning doing this, and had told Paul before he left the day before that they would be by on Wednesday to do the installation.
Lori had left for a doctor’s appointment that morning, which left me as the best person for translation in the house. This is bad news for anyone who needs to relay an important message. They said something about a wire and a connection and some type of extension, but truth be told I didn’t know what they were talking about. I nodded, pretending to understand whatever it was they were saying. After an hour the cable was up and running and I spent another hour of my morning getting the wireless router from next door and hooking it up to this system.
Junior also came by that morning to treat the pool, which had grown a familiar shade of green over the past few days. I was blaming this discoloration on the rain and or the fact that the pool had been filled to the brim by William and Eric who had left the hose on all day on Sunday. New chemicals were needed to equalize something or other, and he was going to return later that afternoon after he had the correct supplies.
About eight minutes after the cable had been hooked up for the internet, lights in the house on Lobster Road flickered out one by one. I thought I had put too much power on one circuit when I plugged in either the modem or the router, but an unfamiliar figure on the other side of the front gate made me think we actually had a power problem. I still was the only person who could relatively speak Portuguese and English in the house so I went outside to see what they were doing. It so happens that these two gentlemen were from the power company, and that they had come to cut our power due to lack of payment.
They shut the outside power box and drove off, leaving me powerless to do anything. I told Caroline to call Aunt Lori, who was unreachable at the doctors. Uncle Mark was working on his cabinets some more in the Planalto, and he didn’t know what to do either. Inacia went to work cooking lunch on our gas stove and I settled down with a book on the couch while the kids tried to think of something to do without any TV to watch or pool to swim in.
We took freezing cold showers, and I contemplated using the last 40% of my computer battery to get up to date with my blogs, in which I was falling behind. I decided against it in case the power was off for days and I needed that 40% for something else. Aunt Lori got home and got the rundown from Inacia what the problem was with the power. Apparently Saint Adelmo next door had failed to pay his power bill, and they had shut the power off for both of the man's properties. He had run to the Pharmacy, which is apparently the location where all business is done in Brazil, to pay the bill and we were told the power would be up that afternoon.
We had a delicious lunch of chicken something or other, before Uncle Mark headed off to the cabinet supply place to get what he needed for the job he was currently doing. Aunt Lori had another appointment that afternoon, and the kids didn’t want to go with either parent on their errand. Seeing someone needed to wait for the power guy, and I was a good 8 hours behind on my blogs I decided to stay on Lobster Road and wait.
He came shortly before 2:00 and turned on the power to our house. The kids made up for lost time in front of the television, while I managed to log on to the computer since the first time the beloved cable was installed. I spent the remainder of the afternoon working on my blogs, and still was not finished by the time dinner came along. I watched Bridge to Terabithia with the kids, where I learned the important lesson that it should in fact be “free to pee”. After the movie I went to work answering a pile of work E-mails that had built up during the past few days.
William asked me to transfer some songs from my computer unto his Ipod, and we spent an hour so selecting some music that he liked, or that I thought he may like. I had given him a day planner when I had arrived here the second time and written under the “Thursday; August 23rd” tab was “Go to Beach with Alex”. I thought this was so cute. I had promised him that I would take him at some point during this week, so I planned on getting up extra early the next day to work on some things before heading to the beach for a few hours.
William was asleep by 9:00 that night, and I wasn’t feeling too good. I decided to call it a night, and slipped my laptop under the bed. It felt good to do what I needed to do in the comfort of my own bed. Now I had the opportunity to work wherever on the property I wanted seeing the router was located directly under my bed. When the morning came, I could hear the sound of Dukes of Hazard from the living room. That meant that William was up bright and early, which is exactly what happens every time he goes to bed before 10:00…
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