So the power goes out up here in the Northgate area about 3:45 this afternoon. I call the Seattle City Light hotline to figure out what’s happening.

Their messages are all referring to something over in View Ridge, way east of here. So I try to report the outage, I mean, it could be isolated.

Punch in my number. Oh, sorry, a human has to handle that. Let’s transfer you.

Oh, it’s Sunday. We’re closed. Try again tomorrow.

What?

I can see the City Light depot from my balcony. They’re clearly working. The customer service people, though, the people who are supposed to handle the reports so the linepeople can mount up their big yellow trucks and ride, have the day off.

Am I missing something here? I thought we paid for 24/7 service, not 8/5.

At least the power did come back on. I’d hate to imagine some poor City Light rep having to sit in his hot powerless house today thinking about having to go to work just to keep cool or surf the Internet while that phone doesn’t stop ringing. I mean, answer the phone? That’s work.

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