I was sitting in my sleeping bag, watching a movie in my apartment the other night, when suddenly the power goes out. Really no big deal, this happens every so often, usually it's only a few minutes and it comes back on, or otherwise no more than an hour.
I continue to watch my movie using the computer's internal battery. I finish the movie just before my computer shuts down. The power stays off.
The main problem with this is that, the only heating I use in my apartment is my electric heater. So no electricity means no heat. So as each hour passed it kept getting colder and colder. With my computer on my lap helps keep me warm in my sleeping bag, but I can feel the temperature slowly dropping. I get in for bed and throughout the night continue zipping up my mummy sleeping bag more and more throughout the night until it's up all the way so all you can see is my head peeking out of my red and grey sarcophagus.
I woke up and still didn't have electricity, so I went to work as soon as possible because it was freezing in my place.
After work I met with my landlord and we went to my place to check it out. The only way I've learned to say 'the power is out' is by saying Lujs Chka, literally, "there is no light." so I keep saying this in my explanation. I get there and have power. Hooray! So we talk, I show him the fuse box, which is fine, he keeps asking me if I used my electric water heater and room heater at the same time and I tell him no, I showered the night before but it was hours later that the power went out. The breaker for my apartment didn't trip so that wasn't the problem.
So we talk for a bit more, an electricity guy came up and looked at my fusebox, and then they both left.
And I go to plug in my heater . . . no electricity.
I call my landlord and he comes back up, and they eventually take a look at the wiring. It runs all along the hall down the stairs. If there ever was internal wiring it doesn't work or just isn't used anymore. So he takes the tape off two pieces of wire, apparently the only thing connecting my house to the electricity grid. He twists the wires around each other again, and wraps it with some new tape, and that seems to get it to work, at least so far I haven't had any problems with the electricity since.
I had come straight home when I met my landlord and had no time to eat so I left my apartment to go to the nearest shop to buy some bread. On my way out the tatik on the first floor greets me. It's almost scary how happy she is. She is in her 80s but is so full of energy, and sounds so happy to me. I can see the exclamation points when she speaks. There was post on facebook by a volunteer recently showing the top 10 most unhappiest countries in the world and Armenia ranked #2. If we assume that this top 10 was accurate, I am almost sure that this tatik is the reason Armenia is ranked #2 and not #1.
She asked if I wanted some sour cucumbers and carrots. Pickled cucumbers and carrots. I told her I needed to get bread, and I would be back.
When I came back she was feeding bread to the birds outside her window. She invites me in, and uses a long two-pronged serving fork to pull out a pickle from a jar of cloudy water. I tell her thank you. Then she pulls out another. And another. Then some pickled carrots. And some more pickles, until almost the whole jar is in a plastic bag, for me. I tell her too much, thank you. And she stops just short of giving me all of them, while telling me that I am her son. She then asks if I have potatoes, I tell her I do even though I don't have any at the moment.
Adopted grandma! Pickles for everybody!
ReplyDelete