Time traveling

I've heard rumors that time machines do not exist. This weekend, though, I was fairly convinced those rumors were false.

My time traveling started on Sunday morning when I opened Firefox and saw that dreadful "unable to load page" message. In the living room our television had turned to snow. We called the cable company, and they said the entire neighborhood was down. It would be back in a few hours, they promised. Ha. Yeah, right.

I left for the day, and when I returned Sunday evening, my roommate said, "Did you notice? We're out of gas." No gas means no cooking and no warm showers, an unfortunate state of affairs in the winter. Puebla doesn't get too cold, but the temperatures do near freezing in the mornings and evenings. We called the gas company. They said they would refill our tank at seven the next morning. Ha. Yeah, right.

Yesterday I woke up to a cold shower. I sang songs about the snow. "I wanna wash my hands, my face and hair with snow" seemed particularly appropriate. I ate a cold breakfast, without the usual background of CNN. The gas truck never came. The internet and cable still weren't working. During the day, Ivan called for gas again. They'd be right over, they said. Ha. Yeah, right.

As I was leaving school, I tried texting a friend. The text wouldn't go through. Strange. I had enough credit on my phone, I thought. My roommate's phone (also Moviestar) was down, too. So was Ivan's.

That evening, Karen and I sat in our 18th century living room and wondered what to do. I couldn't finish making Christmas candy, because the gas tank was empty. We couldn't call the gas company (for the fourth time), because our phones were down. I didn't want to work out, because I didn't want to have to take another icey shower. So I took a nap. Then I took another.

At nine or so, Karen, Ivan, and I went next door to get some dinner. There, we asked around. Our neighbors' internet and cable was still working. Everyone offered advice for getting ours working again. They also said they filled their gas tanks far less often than we did. A neighbor brought a phone book, and we searched for a company that would actually show up and wouldn't rip us off.

Today we have returned to the 21st century. Our phones are working again. A new company filled our tank, and hopefully 500 pesos will last more than a month or two this time. The technician figured out that our cable had been disconnected across the street. He wouldn't give us our extra channels, though. Last time, we had to promise to go dancing with him for him to put up the 20 extra American channels. I guess he figured out we weren't going to make good our promise. Now we're stuck with the 40 Spanish channels we pay for. I have few complaints, though. Hot water and internet and phones are pretty great.