In our society, there is a lot to be said for customer service.  When it’s great, that’s really nice.  When it’s not?  Well…

Imagine a power outage that somehow triggered a fuse box issue.  Now imagine, that as you hear things inside the circuitry popping, hear that gurgling sparking sound of things going wrong with electrical wiring and smelling the refreshing smell of carbon burning…that you call in to speak to property management and let them know that there is a problem going on with the electrical and describe all the above and get rebuffed for having done so…..

Based on the events that happened yesterday*:

Fired Up and Melted Down
by Michael Romani

In no small matter of coincidence
How do I explain this incident
The proof is in the evidence
That once again I'm safe through Providence
This cannot bee said with eloquence
And .. this should have some consequence

Maybe I am through with our talks
A power outage should not blow a fuse box
But that noxious smell of carbon burning
As four blown fuse breakers left my stomach churning
Voice on the telephone says that she's aware
The tone of her voice says she does not care

The electricity crackles along the wires
And the smell tells me it might lead to fires
But, she's aware of the issue; taking note of my concern
Her attitude tells me that it's okay if it burns
While the fumes continue to free flow filling the air
They're irritating my lungs, but, she doesn't care

It must be a nice job if you can only get it
Where a tenant calls in and your simply forget it
Alarmed, I speak presciently that she might get it
Before her, me and everyone lives to regret it
But, you see, her nails are ragged and need to be filed
And there are texts to be sent...and... I'm getting riled

What does it matter if the whole place burns down
I'm just another annoying caller, tenant and clown
And so she dismissively sends me figuratively on my way
She's obviously busy with her version of a cluttered day
To understand there's a fire starting in the wall
But she does note this and thank me for my call

... now isn't that nice?

(c) May 12, 2017  Michael Romani

I want everyone to know that I am okay.  The electrical issue that occurred burned and melted four breaker switches and all that surrounded that.  But, I’m back up and running as of yesterday.  Still astounded that when I called into the management of where I live at this transpired, but other than the stench and aggravated lungs, all is well enough.  Just slightly frazzled…

I handled what was going on including a call to my boss informing her that I should probably take the rest of the day off to make sure that I might salvage anything should the fire get larger (yes that slightly alarmed her until I told her I had this handled) and then I went and found the maintenance guys and got one to come take an urgent look.  Thanks to a few decently done moves on my part, the potential fire is nothing more than a memory and a replaced fuse box and wiring.  Okay yes, there is the issue of noxious fumes.  But nothing worse than irritated lungs.

*It has been pointed out to me that some might mistake this image taken from a public domain source as an actual image of the fuse box burning up.  I do not pretend to understand why this might be in that I have described the event in what I wrote.  But, I want to make certain no one is confused.  This is simply meant to be representative of what might well have happened given the negligent response I had been given.  As I stated above, I managed to get this under control before anything too bad had occurred. I apologize for any confusion to anyone.