Ten days without power. Or a shower.

Finally got my power back on yesterday afternoon. They needed to put in a new pole behind the neighboring house and string wires onto it, and as if by magic, the electricity had returned.

I was able to determine for certain that my cable was, in fact, out. And all I could get on my TV without an antenna was the more boring of the two PBS stations in Richmond. So I spent much of yesterday afternon searching for an indoor antenna, which was difficult to find as there are a lot of folks in the same situation of power and no cable. But I finally tracked one down, and can now get your basic on-air networks – ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and PBS – and, of course, none of the cable channels. But it’s a start. The cable company refuses to even hazard a guess as to when they’ll restore their service, and I don’t know if that means their repair trucks are scheduled for the next three weeks without my area being included or that it’s going to be tomorrow and they just don’t tell the customer service people.

And I got another one of the Dominion Power automated harrassment phone calls last night. Apparently, enough people complained about the message that they edited it to be friendlier. Mind you, they didn’t re-record it – they edited it, with a different voice. But it wasn’t quite so arrogant this time.

Oh, and no showers? No hot water, because the ignition on my hot water heater is electric. And a cold-water sponge bath, while bracing, isn’t something to take very often if you can avoid it. So I adopted a European attitude towards personal hygiene. And I spent much of yesterday afternoon luxuriating in a warm shower.