So I was working at home yesterday afternoon (which doesn't happen nearly often enough) when the power went out. I didn't notice at first because the computer is on a battery backup and I had the lights out. I love this time of year, when it's getting hot, but it hasn't been hot for long enough to warm up the house. So you leave the lights out and the windows open and the house stays cool all afternoon.
Anyway, I was working at home and the power went out. I realized it when the battery backups started beeping. And then Jane started barking outside, and I went out and saw a woman at the electric meter. I had a moment of panic, wondering if we had forgotten to pay the bill and she was here to cut the power or something? But no, she explained that our meter was broken and she was replacing it.
She said that they knew it was broken because the reading had been the same this month as last month. I asked her how they were going to bill us for this month and she just shrugged. I asked if they would estimate the bill, and she said she thought they'd probably just start over from yesterday.
When I told Georg about this, he told me that the power bill had been only $8 last month. He had assumed they were doing some kind of year-end adjustment. So, wow! Thanks Duke Power!
Well, you can thank them for not charging you for last month, but they certainly deserve the opposite of thanks for cutting off your power without warning you when they changed the meter. You're smart to have a UPS on your computer, but what about all of your clocks, VCR, etc?