Before getting into the travel details, I want to finish up the story with the electricity in Boston being out on only one floor of the apartment (first part of the story). We agreed to assume the debt caused by the unpaid power bills since we’ve been living at the apartment, but did this get our power back on? Not quite.

The power company asked us to be home all day the day after we called. We were home every minute of that day, which happened to be New Year’s Eve. When no one came, we gave up until after New Year’s Day, when we learned that someone had actually come by the day we called (rather than the day after – which is when they said they would come). It probably wouldn’t have mattered if we had been home, because the power company’s method of contacting the residents of a second and third floor apartment is to knock on the heavy basement door in the back of the building. We would have never heard such knocking…

How did they eventually catch our attention? The power guys happened to look up and see someone retrieving a carton of milk from the chilly fire-escape. Communicating by car horn, the electric company was finally able to switch us back on. Funny that they didn’t require our help to cut the power – only to restore it, but it is restored.