Mexican Adventure- the Notfun Kind

What a day. The kids and I were stepping out the door for a walk and there were a couple of guys in uniforms fiddling with something at the front of my house. One of them informed me that they were cutting off my power because I had failed to pay my electric bill!!! What? I pay every bill after I receive it! I had no bills pending payment. I dashed to the office and checked the file. Sure enough, the last bill paid was October. NO! I've seen the mailman deliver bills, and while some will tuck them into our front gate or under the windshield wiper, some just toss them in the driveway. One good blast of wind and... Adios bill. I must add that while it feels good to cast blame, I am fully aware that the electric company is quick to cut the power and I should have been paying better attention. I do keep track of our bills on the calendar, but I dropped the ball this month.

So, a good part of the day was spent in the quest to get our power back. I drove down to the place and got in line to the machine. Waited a few minutes, then asked someone in line whether I just had to pay at the machine. He told me I had to wait in another line first, then come to this line. So I grabbed number #91 and watched while they served #84. It wasn't going very quickly at first but got better fast. The kids were great. Very understanding. Eva declared she had to pee but assured me she could wait a little bit, and did (yay Eva!). The first procedure was easy, and we were told that the power would be back on by 1:00 or 1:30. The lady said that if it wasn't on by 2 I could call the Abastos street office, and gave me the number. Perfect. By the time we got back to the machine line most of the people had dissipated. Eva got to help feed in the cash, which she loved and is getting very good at. The final step was paying the $10 dollar reconnection fee. We got sent back into the office area where people were quietly working, but the desk of the lady we had to see was empty. We were told she'd be back right away. "Right away" turned into 20 minutes. The lady turned out to be the one we had seen in the bathroom 15 minutes earlier. I guess she had a big job to do in there! But finally, everything was taken care of.

The next part of the day was awesome. We met Andrew for lunch. The food and the company were delicious. The kids had a blast playing on the little structure in the restaurant. Micah was a maniac at the table. Overturning everything he could reach and rocking his high chair in a most dangerous manner.

We got home a little after 2 and naturally the power was still out. I called the number for 45 minutes and mostly got busy signals. Sometimes I actually got a ring, but nobody actually answered. I called the place where I had paid the bill and I she could/would suggest was driving down to the Abastos outlet. Said the offices were open until 3:30. At 3pm I bundled the kids into the van and took off for the outlet. Do you think I could find it?? Gahhhh. At 3:25 I called Andrew to see if anyone at his office knew where it was. He put his HR manager on and she said she'd make a call. By the time we got home from gymnastics we had beautiful power!!!! Whoohooooo! Thank you Cuquis!!!!!!! People around the office told Andrew that even though CFE says they'll put the power back on within a couple of hours, they never do. One guy in Andrew's office had his power out for 3 days! I am SO glad for the help. I will NOT make the same mistake twice. I will be supervigilant about our bills from now on.