Disappeared News

It’s been quiet on this blog since a rat with suicidal intent visited our condo a couple of days ago. It chewed through an electrical cable which sparked and caused a fire badly damaging the electrical switchgear supplying power to three large buildings.

I was told that the rat was still alive when the fire engines came, and although they were asked to give it CPR, the firemen refused. So it died. No chance to interrogate it to find out if it acted alone or was part of a larger band of evildoing rodents.

We were without power initially for more than 24 hours. But we have a great staff, and the resident manager  called in portable generators that were connected with thick copper cables while repairmen checked for parts of the switchgear that still worked. It was quite a job arranging things so that the generators could take over.

Our UPS powered the computer for a few minutes so that things could be shut down in an orderly manner. We have battery lanterns and radios and didn’t suffer too much. We didn’t open our fridge, but some people did, and they would have lost everything.

Across the street we met many of our neighbors over at Zippys at mealtimes. And I even got some work done by taking my tablet PC to a hot spot.

But not much blogging. We are cooperating by keeping computers and other unnecessary equipment turned off.

Every few hours a truck comes to refill the generator tanks with Saudi crude. They drink it literally by the barrel, and you know what a barrel costs these days. I’m amazed that generators this small and quiet (though stinky) can supply enough juice to run buildings with hundreds of apartments.

At the same time, I’m afraid of what the cost will be to all of us (1,200 people + or – a few hundred) thanks to this one rat on a mission of mass destruction.