Great garden produce is my best consumer experience this week, while another power outage is upsetting

By Rita R. Robison

Luckily my power is back on, so I can cook garden vegetables.

My best consumer experience: Potatoes and kale from my garden

Last year, I tried to grow kohlrabi. The bugs attacked with a vengeance. The year before that, I planted cabbage. Also, a bug disaster.

This year, I decided to try potatoes. They’re doing well. In one hill, I could see potatoes sticking out of the ground, so I harvested some.

I’m going to make shredded potatoes and fried eggs. Yum, yum.

I’ve also cooked up kale several times and enjoyed a big pot of green beans. I’m also eating cherry tomatoes when I go out to do yard work.

My worst consumer experience: Another power outage

My electrical utility is Puget Sound Energy.

Last night, I experienced my third power outage in about six weeks.

In addition to the big snowstorm in January when my power was out for four days, I also had an outage on March 30.

When I called to report the outage, I had to enter my phone number or account number before I could talk to anyone. A recorded message told me twice that the computer couldn’t find my information.

When I finally reached a real person, he said that PSE was doing work on its accounts, so that was probably why the computer couldn’t find me.

The PSE employee had no idea when the power would be back on. He seemed unconcerned that I had no power. When I asked when I should call back, he said if my power wasn’t back on in two hours, I could call again. PSE might know something by then.

When I called back, a recorded message said four homes were without power and PSE would be fixing the problem.

Before I went to bed at 1 a.m., I looked outside. No PSE trucks had come to fix the problem.

This time, the power was out for six hours.

It looks like the new management at PSE isn’t able to provide reliable electrical service.

Copyright 2012, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist