Start of a bad day

Awoke this morning to a dull thumping noise. That's not too unusual, people in my neighborhood are perpetually doing rennovations. What is unusual is to be woken up before I've hit snooze a few times on my alarm. So I looked to see what time they got started today and saw that the clock wasn't reading. Uh-oh! My computer wasn't humming, so I got up and discoverd my lights don't work. Tripped a breaker? Then I noticed it was warm and my AC wasn't running. Tripped the main breaker? I know the power was on last night at 2. And I know it was gone by 9.

More likely, that the nearby construction had the power turned off. "Kinda rude not to let me know first", I thought. Lo and behold the construction was 2 houses away, and they still had power. The house on the other side of me had power too (I could see the outdoor meter turning). So I dug up a flashlight and climbed over the mess in my basement to find the circuit breaker. It didn't look like any of the breakers had tripped. In retrospect I should have switched them off and then on again, but truth be told, I don't like messing with the circuit breaker even when the basement lights are on. Then, just to be sure, I verified that PECO had recieved their last payment (which they had).

So I called PECO and got routed to an automatic system. I fed the cats and changed the litter. The upstairs was getting toasty, I got a drink out of the fridge, which was still cool, even though the light didn't go on. Then I went to work stinky and pissed. You don't realize how important power is and how much we take it for granted.

UPDATE:
Even as I write this PECO's autodialler called me up. Evidently the power's on at the meter which means I own the problem. (gratitious string of swearing)