There are lots of things I wouldn't mind being a chazakah. Winning the lottery three plus times comes to mind. Eating a chocolate bar three different times and losing 5 pounds each time would be nice. Having the IRS owe us money three years in a row would be welcome. But this year we got a chazakah I frankly could have done without, the third time coming today.
A little while ago there was a loud bang and the computer went dead. Actually all the electricity in the house was off. What now? my hubby and I wondered exasperatedly. Out we went to see if we could spot a downed wire anywhere. What we saw totally confounded us. Across the street and down a little bit, in exactly the same spot where it had happened a few months ago, a squirrel had chewed through an electrical cable and sent the block back into the dark ages. Yuckily you could see pieces of the carcass adhering to the cable. Only this time we were really lucky. Con Ed had a work truck about 400 feet from where the squirrel committed suicide, reconnecting a different downed wire going to an individual house. They, too, had heard the bang, came down to investigate and immediately moved their truck over and put up a new cable.
To say that all of us on the block weren't happy is a gross understatement. This is the third time a squirrel has done us in in less than a year. While everyone was standing around the Con Ed crew complaining one of the crew mentioned that there is a type of super heavy weight cable that seems to deter squirrels from chewing--they get frustrated trying to chew through it and quit. But that is not the standard cable that is used, and we'd have to demonstrate real need, because that cable is more expensive than the regular cable. Helllooo, just how much more need do we need to demonstrate than three incidents? An accountant on the block was trying to explain that it wasn't cost effective for Con Ed to have to come out every two months to replace the old, chewed through cable--it would be cheaper just to replace with the heavier cable one time. The answer: "We'll file a report and if it happens again we'll put the heavier cable in---maybe."
Want to know one reason why NYC is having financial troubles? Because the City is "penny wise and pound foolish." By my reckoning our next chewed line should be around Shavuous. Couldn't I just win the lottery instead?
2 comments:
Gives thanks for Manhattan apartment buildings where the neighbors may be really squirrely but electricity stays on.
It happened again? You should get the cops to complain on your behalf, too. I remember the last time you were out shopping for shabbos and I was home--the "bang" that resulted from the squirrel suicide was so loud, it netted enough calls to the cops about a "possible bomb" that they had to go door-to-door to reassure everyone that it was just a stupid squirrel.
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