The note from Peco was pretty clear.

There was going to be a power outage the following day from 8 AM to 4 PM and this time they meant it.

They had threatened an outage the previous week and after the neighbors had gritted our teeth and prepared for it, Peco never followed through.

But this time they were serious.

And for extra measure, I admit it was a pleasure, they were threatening to tow any cars that were blocking them from doing what they needed to do.

I prepared by making sure I had plenty of ice and filled an extra container with it, so that when the power when out, I could transfer that container from the freezer to the refrigerator section to help keep the milk and other things chilled.

The big day came, I made my claim, and asked a workman just how long the power would be out. He assured me that in the worst case it would be three to four hours at most.

He asked if I recognized any of the cars that were still parked along the street, and I told him that as far as I knew, anyone who actually lived on this street had moved their cars. The cars that were still there belonged to aliens.

I took so much joy in watching them get towed away.

Now I guess I should explain.

The vast majority of the cars that park in this street are reasonably quiet. Unless I happen to see them as they are parking, I don’t even notice them.

But there is a minority that are loud in one way or another. Either they have never heard of mufflers and make as much noise as the loudest motorcycles. Or they are blaring their stereo systems, and they aren’t satisfied making noise while they take their time parking (and generally they don’t know how to park so it takes them forever to maneuver in this narrow street), but then they sit in their cars with the ignition on continuing to make noise for another fifteen minutes or more.

So while I have no idea if the cars that were towed away belonged to the selfish cretins who make excessive noise, I did take great joy in watching them being towed away.

The power was off for three hours, and my trick with the ice worked splendidly.