Let There Be Light

I spent Sunday and Monday nights at Alejandro's house.  We had a spell of cloudy weather, and even some rain.  Without the sun, the temperatures have been low, and even in the afternoon the high has not reached 70 F.   On Monday night / Tuesday morning the temperature went down to 41.  I was freezing! (Remember, homes here do not have central heating.)  After another cloudy morning, on Tuesday afternoon the sun finally appeared.

That afternoon I returned to the apartment that I rent.  When I got to the building there were two trucks from CFE (Federal Electricity Commission) outside.  They were doing  maintenance on the electric lines on the street, and there was no power in the building.  

I had to climb the steps up to my fourth floor apartment.  It was a bit tricky in parts of the stairwell where there was very little light.  I would place my foot on a step, and then slide it forward until I touched the next step.  I finally made it to my floor.

There wasn't much I could do in the apartment.  I turned on my laptop using its battery, but then I realized that without the WiFi I couldn't get on to the internet.  After a while I carefully made my way back down the steps and went out to El Cardenal for lunch.  (I discovered that 3:30 is a good time to go there.  I didn't have to wait at all for a table.)

Back at the apartment, there was still no electricity.  I took a seat on the glass-enclosed balcony off of my bedroom where there was still plenty of light to read.  However I found myself spending most of my time watching the workers who were directly outside.

  

Finally, around 5:30 the workers seemed to be calling it a day.  "Are they leaving without turning the power back on?" I wondered.  I went into the bathroom and saw that the nightlight was on.  Electricity was restored!