Upgrades

 They are doing an upgrade to the electric in the village, well moving the meters so they are easier to read, ours was inside the porch, now it's outside on the front of the house. They also put a new wire from the road to the house. The electric was off around 12:30 Tuesday until 3:30. We were having staff meeting that morning when Box hissed at the man tapping on the window she was sitting in. If you don't know, tapping on the window is a perfectly normal way to get people out to talk to you here.

It was one of the crew, Victor and Garry stepped out to talk to them. Yana knew all about it, I think she had her house done already, apparently they are working their way down the street. There was a search for a recent bill. Victor had one over at the little house. So they were all set to do their thing after they turned the power off.

So I made stir fry  and rice for lunch before the power went off, and hey, with a gas stove we can even cook when the power is off. Garry and Victor went over to barn, so after the first group got the wire up, the guy to move the box came.

He knocked on the door, and was a little disappointed in my sketchy Russian, but I understood what he wanted since Yana had explained it, a different guy would move the box. He did ask to see the the electric bill which took me a while to figure out what he wanted (I was like lights?) until he made a rectangle with his hands. I hunted for the one they had given the first group, he got excited when I picked one up, but it was for next door. I did find the right one and gave it to him.

A little later he came back with the lady in charge of paperwork and asked me to phone someone who speaks Russian. I had to tell him- my phone- no money- and I could not call, they were at the barn if he wanted them. So the two of them tried to explain the problem to me. Turns out our bill is still in the babushka's name, he was asking why the names didin't match. I said 'we buy three years' (I told you my Russian is pretty simple) and gas bill has our name, I don't know why. They decided if I signed our last name it was fine, so I signed four times, twice on each copy, after she took out the carbon paper. I haven't seen carbon paper in years. She gave me one copy. Victor says it's about the seal on the meter so we should keep it.

Wednesday the power was out after lunch for about an hour, so I guess they were doing more houses. Maybe they will put a coated wire up this year. Apparently the people across the street who have been throwing a wire up on the bare wire to steal electricity for years are trying to sell their house because they have a huge bill/fine to pay.