Hell on the Verizon

OK, this is exactly the sort of thing that I've been wanting to post here. Unfortunately, the damn thing had to happen to me. But here's the story:

We've moved into a new apartment, bigger than the last one, with a second bedroom that's going to get used as an office. Plus, it's less money than the last place, which is always good.

The trouble starts and, believe it or not, has nothing whatsoover to do with the phone company. The building we're moving into was rebuilt nearly from scratch, with nothing but about 25% of the original brickwork on the outside remaining. Everything else is brand spankin' new. Now, it was originally supposed to have 6 apartments in it, two on each floor. But the landlord, for his own reasons, decides instead to combine them into three. The first floor is one apartment, with two more bi-level apartments each taking half of the second and third floors.

Unfortunately, no one tells the electric company this. And so upon trying to hook up electrical service, we find that there are twice as many meters in the building as needed, two for each apartment. And get this: one day, as we're moving some stuff in, the power goes out.... in half the apartment. Apparently, half of the meters are fed from one pole, and the other half from another. In each of the 3 apartments in the building, half of the power is out (so we have electricity in the living room and kitchen, but not the bedrooms or bathroom. Cute.)

This proves to be a portent for things to come.

coming next.... ordering phone service.