Lights Out
Just as I was going to brew a pot of coffee the power went off. I wandered outside to see if there were lights on in the other houses to see if I forgot to pay some kind of bill. But it was now daylight, though still early, and maybe nobody was up yet. I went to the car to get the gate opener, tried it, and nothing worked. The whole place was dark.
On a whim I walked out to the gate to try my key, which I had never done before, and nothing in my pocket fit the lock. Back in the house and upstairs to pull out the key collection. I knew there was a complete set in there somewhere that the maid (long since fired) used, and I brought the lot of them back out with me to the gate. I found two that worked so I adjusted my collection. I found I also had only one car key.
The complex has a guard that lives in a little shack in front and handles most of the maintenance. He also distributes the bills as they are delivered (here they are delivered by the companies doing the billing). There is no mail to speak of here, though there is a post office and mailmen. There's a plan to put up street signs and number the houses, but as it's been tried before and was a disaster and abandoned I'm not holding my breath. Bills get lost, and a week or two ago the water to the complex was shut off because somebody forgot to pay. The guard claimed he delivered the bills but nobody paid. I never saw one and blamed it on the (former) maid.
It's now six-thirty and the power's been off for a half hour, I can't go anywhere in the car and I can't make coffee. It's time to go back to bed.
