8/23/2004

Stupid Fffing Country
Can you feel the rant coming on? I know you can. It's really only a small one. Well, small by MY standards anyway!!
A question: What do you think is the worst thing that can happen in a country in late August in the Middle East with early morning temps of 105 degrees PLUS around (judging by lack of ability to draw oxygen into my lungs) 85-90% humidity? Hmmmmm???
Answer: A BLACKOUT. A WHOLE COUNTRY-WIDE BLACKOUT. Did I mention that I live on an island in the Persian Gulf? Attached to the nearest land mass by a 30km long causeway? Oh, well NOW I did.
Details:
Early this morning while I was still unconcious (another bout of insomnia.... passed out from exhaustion around 5am) the electricity went bye-bye. It woke me up. I thought to myself... "Aw shit, stupid basssards, how long I gotta wait for them to fix it this time?" (still sleep slurring my words in my head) See, it isn't odd for them to just cut the power supply for a half an hour or hour to sections of the country at a time to conserve power. I just thought it was yet another waiting game.
Nope.
After about an hour I started calling people on my moblie (cell) phone. That's when I found out the whole country was down. The damn power was out the whole day.
Maybe your don't realize just how dependent this country is on the electricity supply. I sure didn't , not until this blackout. There are the obvious things. NO Air Conditioning, tv, groceries spoiling, blah blah blah. yeah so. But also? No house phone cause the tel co computers are ALSO down for land lines. Thank God the mobiles were working, but they were so overloaded, that it took forever to get through. The Gas Stations? Closed. Only 4 had generators. Seems the newfangled gas pumps need electricity. (Aparently there were some amazing fistfights I missed at the 4 gas stations that actually WERE pumping!) One of em ran out of Gas somewhere during the middle of the day,which pissed people off even more! The traffic lights were all off also. All of them. Needless to say, on a good day, with the lights, there are accidents. Shut them down? People get all mind fucked and can't manage to drive! Accidents every freaking place. Tons of em. Water supply? Strapped. See, we were informed to use as little water as possible. Electric pumps are used to fill the big water tanks everywhere from the main water lines which come from desalinization plants which run on .........ELECTRICITY. get the picture?
The local radio station has an emergency generator. So do the 5-star hotels. The malls? No. Grocerey stores? no. The whole country shut down. Basically, we're pretty screwed today. It's 10:40pm and still some areas don't have electricty... my SIL what bought me the purse is one of em.
And me? I wrote this post by hand the old fashioned way with pen and paper while sitting with Arianna in my car with the Air Conditioning on. People were sitting in their cars, and either sitting in the garage, going around the block, (which I did every now and then and enabled me to catch Dr. Wand Monkey with his mistress- no shit!) I got fed up with cruising or just sitting in the car, so we went home. Ari had to use the bathroom, so I went in with her. Then I got to thinking.... (I hear a collective UH-OH!!!!! from around the globe Hush y'all!!!!!) looking at the cats spread flat out on the floor in various states of lazy... and noticed.. the tile floor in my bedroom is still, after all thse hours, pretty cool! Hmmmmmmmm, I wonder....... Well, if ya can't beat em, join em! I stripped off my tank top and shorts and stretched out in my underthings,on the cool tile floor! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! That was GOOD! (and brilliant of me, I must admit!) Arianna wandered in and said, all appalled "MOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! What-ARE-YOU-DOING????????" "I'm getting cool cutie! Wanna join me?"
The electricity here came back on a few hours ago where I live.
Z? He works technically in Saudi Arabia. Literally on the bridge, Saudi side. He wasn't affected by the blackout, lucky bugger. BUT. He DID get his.
His car is still in the shop after his accident last week. So, the office driver has been taking him to work and bringing him back everyday (you can't take a rental car on the bridge from Bahrain to Saudi). This evening, Z's boss got all huffy, and told him he can't use him to get home. Z was stuck.
So I get a phone call from Z in the dark telling me (right as the elect kicks in) that he has HITCHEHIKED from Saudi. ME: SAY WHAT???? Z: "I hitched to Bahrain". ME: "The fuck you did?!" Z: " Yeeah, but they dropped me at X (Near his sisters house, kinda, but on the highway) and he was walking home! I said "Hang on, where are you exactly? He said "Well, It's pitch black, but I think I'm at XYZ ". Ok, I'm on my way!
Y'all. I was so fucking terrified. It was eerie. The whole country was pitch black. No streetlamps, nothin. Seems the only area with elect was in the near vicinity of my house. I creeped along roads with people driving like crazies on Acid. Me, Praying hard. I couldn't see jack shit. Then, I get to the intersection in front of his sisters house which, when all the lights and stoplights are working, is frigtening and you are highly likely to get killed at any rate. Excecpt NOW it's pitch dark excecpt for the cars coming from both directions at top speed. It took forever to make it across and turn left. I was cruising down the dark street looking for Z, who, it turns out, was wearing a BLACK suit. Mobile phones were shutdown due to overload of the lines... I had to hang a U-turn in another frightening intersection cause I thought I might have seen the white of his shirt on the other side a way back. I picked him up finally and crawled on back home.
Guess what the temp reading in the shade was today? 120+ 80% humidity.
And how was YOUR day?












5 comments:

Unknown said...

I think I had a better day than you. Personlly I think you're brave just to live in a country where it's possible for the entire place to lose electricity. I thought it was bad living in a residential motel where you had to use the shower at the end of the hall (that is if no one had shit in it or broken the shower head in all their tweaker glory. OK that was bad, but luckily several years ago too. Did you grow up in the US? If you did, do you or did you ever find it scary to be in such a foreign environment?
-Carrie Jo

Unknown said...

LOL, Cheryl. She got your panties in a wad eh? But I agree with you, she should keep her mouth shut if she doesn't know what she's talking about. Besides, if she had to be in that fucked up heat with no electricity and no running water, she'd be bitching too.
-Carrie Jo

Unknown said...

LOL, Cheryl. She got your panties in a wad eh? But I agree with you, she should keep her mouth shut if she doesn't know what she's talking about. Besides, if she had to be in that fucked up heat with no electricity and no running water, she'd be bitching too.
-Carrie Jo

Unknown said...

LOL, Cheryl. She got your panties in a wad eh? But I agree with you, she should keep her mouth shut if she doesn't know what she's talking about. Besides, if she had to be in that fucked up heat with no electricity and no running water, she'd be bitching too.
-Carrie Jo

Unknown said...

LOL, Cheryl. She got your panties in a wad eh? But I agree with you, she should keep her mouth shut if she doesn't know what she's talking about. Besides, if she had to be in that fucked up heat with no electricity and no running water, she'd be bitching too.
-Carrie Jo