Looks like my post didn't publish last night ... I suppose the internet wouldn't co-operate. Funny, though, it showed up as 'published' ... but when I looked just now: Draft! Ah, well, it's published now ...
Oh great! Stage 2 load shedding starting again at noon today! Why? Oh, more breakdowns ... Sigh, I understand that it's going to take a while, before they've overcome the decades of neglect.
A bit like my gardening, eh? I'm trying to keep up with nature, while at the same time cleaning up years of neglect!
I've just spent over an hour trying to find out WHEN I will be affected by load shedding! Oh, yeah, there's a schedule on their website! Pffft! It's not exactly reliable, is it? Plus, of course, it is really, really unfriendly format! You can't filter, headings aren't 'fixed' ... so you end up holding your finger on the screen on the column you want to look at, while you scroll down! Can't export it, can't print it ... well, unless you want to print the bits, then tape them into a useful thing. And trying to figure out which Block I'm in? Impossible! No kidding, it is NOT possible!
Only way to know, is to wait until your lights go out, then check against the schedule, which group was affected at that time. First problem: the schedule shows only 1 group - but in reality, 2 groups are affected. Last load shedding was last week, 7th & 8th. I was out until 7:00, if I remember correctly? Or was I out until 5:00? Go back to my blog ... it was until 5:00. Now look up which groups were out on Day 7 AND Day 8 until 5:00. None. Different groups on different dates ...
Search some more, find the City of Tshwane Tweet. Ah: they didn't bother with the schedule, but just used one schedule for both days. Grrr. What's the point of a schedule, then? Anyway ... Okay, so it looks like I'm either group 7 or 11.
Now comes the finger-on-the-screen scrolling to find out when either of these blocks are scheduled the next 4 days. Right. Looks like I'll be in the dark:
Fri : 15:00 - 17:30, and again
23:00 - 01:00
Sat : 07:00 - 09:30
Sun : 05:00 - 07:30, and again
That's going to bugger up my weekend! No coffee! Well, Saturday should be no problem, but Sunday? I'll have to boil water Saturday night and put it in the flask!
Of course, that is ONLY if we stay at Stage 2! If we go to Stage 3 ... And looking at the schedule ... it doesn't make sense! Stage 3 means longer outages ... so, a group should appear in two time schedules. It doesn't.
Oh, okay! Apparently, you need to look not only at the current stage, but ALL LESSER STAGES, at the same time! That's why in Stage 2 there are 2 Groups.
Okay, re-checking the schedule ...
Now it's getting tricky. I don't know whether I'm Group 7 or 11. And I don't know whether Stage 3 comes up. Let's look ONLY at Stage 2:
Hang on a minute ... let me re-look at the tweet from last week. Something's bugging me ... heading: Load shedding 7 - 8 January. Let me scroll down a bit ... Yup! There it is! Another tweet heading: Load shedding 6 - 7 January! 03:00 - 05:00 Groups 11 & 15! THAT fits with Eskom's schedule! AND it means that I'm in group 11!
Right, that simplifies it for me. Let's look at the schedule again ... unfortunately, it scrolls down over several pages by time ... so I have to look at all 4 days, write it down, then re-arrange it by date.
16th Stage 1 07:00 - 09:30
17th Stage 1 13:00 - 15:30
14th Stage 2 15:00 - 17:30
15th Stage 3 15:00 - 17:30
14th Stage 1 23:00 - 01:30
15th Stage 2 23:00 - 01:30
16th Stage 3 23:00 - 01:30
By Date:
Stage 1 23:00 - 01:30
15th Stage 3 15:00 - 17:30
Stage 2 23:00 - 01:30
16th Stage 1 07:00 - 09:30
Stage 3 23:00 - 01:30
17th Stage 2 05:00 - 07:30
Stage 1 13:00 - 15:30
That agrees with the latest tweet ... although that ends at 23:00, though Eskom states it will continue from 12:00 today through Sunday 11pm. I'll find out tonight, won't I?
The purple, Stage 3, may not apply, but I put it down for myself as a reference. But whether I'm Stage 1 or Stage 2 - since Eskom implemented Stage 2, both will apply to me.
What a mission, though! Three hours! Oh, and Eskom's schedule isn't from Eskom's website - can't get a schedule from that site ... I had to get it off the City of Tshwane's website, which is about as useful as a chocolate kettle!
But now, I can read their schedule! And, in future, won't need to rely on twits ... erm, I mean tweets ... to find out when I'll be without power! Provided I'm right, and I really am Group 11! Ha Ha!
Normally, I would have copy-typed the schedule into Excel, but with my current typo issue ... it hasn't gone away, I still think the correct letters and occasionally type the wrong ones. I try to 'catch' these typo's before I publish, and since everything now has automatic spell-checker, I should pick them up easily ... but, you may have noticed that I type labour, not labor? Yeah, so there are ALWAYS some words showing up as errors ...
Oh, by the way: No, I don't have Twitter! You don't need it to see tweets, as long as you have a link to them, somewhere.
Finally, time to go home! Half-way home, I see the robots are out - I take that as confirmation, that my research and work was correct: we're out from 15:00 - 17:30! At home, I see the light on the water tower is out ... it's not yet 17:30.
Also on the way home, I made up these lyrics, to 'The Sound of Silence':
Here comes the load shed shit again,
Eskom can not get their service right
All we see are yet more pricing hikes
Should we endure
in silence?
I sang that all the way home, until I had the lyrics just right. Fortunately, I have magic ears: I don't hear what I really sound like, but what it should sound like!
It's also rained a fair bit! 11 mm! Awesome! Okay, so I can't mow the lawn, as I had planned - but I can dig up weeds! I start with the herb garden area, where some weeds have already had time to grow. Better pull those out, before they get out of hand again. Then I clear the car port again. I'm able to dig out a few creeper roots, as well! This time, I also work along the front of the car port - which is 98% weeds, nothing else.
By the time I got to the driveway end, it was getting dark, so I went inside. Twenty past seven! No power! Huh? What the ... Did I get it wrong? After all that research? Are we out from five to half eight?
Half eight comes and goes ... no light. So, I start calling. My next door neighbour doesn't answer. The neighbour on the west is busy on his phone. Finally, the lady neighbour I met New Year answers! Turns out some twatwaddle drove into an electrical pole, near Onderstepoort ... Around ten this morning! They've been working to repair that ever since.
Ironic, isn't it?
Anyway, I was lucky enough to get enough water into the bath, so I could at least wash myself properly. I even got some warm water!
Now, it's nearing eleven ... I better publish quickly, in case we're being load shat at eleven ... having enjoyed a mere half hours electricity since 10 this morning!
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