I Have No Power, and I Must Not Scream · 5:01pm Oct 15th, 2022
So like two months ago, the upstairs neighbor in my apartment complext (not the same one who threatened to stab me that one time) noticed that, whenever she touched her shower, she would get zapped.
Like. Static electricity, right? Whenever she touched her showerhead, or let the water run, there would be a sizzle and a crackle and she would get zapped if she touched anything metallic. This was too consistent to be a coincidence, or just a matter of them wearing a wooly jersey. This was an actual issue.
The woman, then, in a move I can't help but condone because mood to that, sister -- the woman did absolutely nothing. She went 'oh, this sounds like an issue', and then went around her day. She just got zapped whenever she used the shower. Like, whatever. It's 2022, right. Life's so complicated already.
Anyway! One month later, my house lost all power.
So turns out, that zapping was because there was a leak in that shower, and water was filtering downards through her floor, which is also my roof because she's my upstairs neighbor, and it fried the electrical installation in my apartment. There was no fire, which is a really good thing because I like being alive, but also -- like. No power.
No lights, no phone, no internet (obviously), no TV, no nothing.
This situation was, frankly, immensely funny. I like my upstairs neighbor; she's very nice, very cheerful, and is worried sick about me right now. We've talked about this at length and she's extremely sorry about everything that's happened -- and we've both been contacting our landlord so that this shit is fixed asap.
Mind, the landlord is trying to be cute, here. When I first called and went "hey, something is wrong with the installation, I have no power and the electrical company says it's on your end" the landlord tried to get me to call my insurance. Which was funny. "You're the landlord," I said. "You are the insurance. It is literally your only job." Took a bit of prodding and more than a couple calls, but eventually they got working.
My neighbor's shower doesn't zap her anymore (because, yknow, everything on my end is fried) and I have power in two rooms (the kitchen and the living room; this means I have to light the bathroom with my phone whenever I shower, which is a great way to understand you will die one day), but this is a quick and dirty fix that they did so that we wouldn't fucking sue them. The electrical installation was horseshit, and the way the shower was placed upstairs was also dogshit, because the landlord cut costs when renovating the house. Who would've thought!
Anyway. All this to explain why the next comic is taking so long; I have been sort of busy! but I'm still working on it. Also, I went to America this summer! I went to visit my girlfriend and her family! They're all taller than me and they laughed about it in my face. It was great. I barely cried.
I'm back to work on the comic, and I've been thinking of maybe posting a writey blog soon, because I've got a couple topics I'd like to talk about. Maybe a review, too! But, comic first.
Also! October 18th (so in two days at the time of posting) it will be my birthday! I wanted to post a blog and a story that day, to celebrate? But that's the day where the heavy renovations in my house start, so I don't think I'll have time to do anything. Better to post stuff beforehand, just in case.
So check that new story I posted today, it's called Rock Beats. My father recently made a new friend even though he's like 67, and he's from that generation of old people who don't really hang out with others and don't have friends once they get married? So that was very sweet. The story is dedicated to him, in a way. That's what inspired it.
Also, FoME has a new contest, and I kinda need the money, cause, as I said, renovations. Lotta expenses that come with that.
Anyway! Back to the drawing mines. Next comic will be a doozy so I want it to be out as soon as possible. See ya! And make sure to wish me a happy birthday on the 18th. I'm a diva; I survive on attention!
Oh and like. Ko-fi link if you feel like it. Gonna be a bit tight till the next comic is out, so anything helps blahblah birthday soon.
Would you believe the stabby neighbor is still there? She hasn't stabbed me, and lately she's started to smile at me whenever I walk by, though she's noticeably nervous. I think she hopes I've forgotten everything about our little dispute. I gotta write an update blog on that sooner than later, but since no knives have been introduced in my stomach yet, I felt it wasn't exactly urgent for y'all to know the inner details of it all. I'm waiting for the climax of the story too, yknow.
Yikes. She's lucky that the rest of the current wasn't reaching her.
5692601
RIGHT??? dude i'm so scared of electricity combining with water, if i shake my hands off and the water droplets get on the lightswitch i flinch like it's gonna kill me. i cannot imagine genuinely getting shocked by a water fixture every day and not immediately being like "Someone's Gotta Do Somethin' About That. That's Quite Unpleasant"
I drink to your remaining continually unstabbed.
5692606
La Vecina got kicked out of the apartment months ago. She's probably already dead of meth overdose.
I like how you continue to use funny to describe terrifying situations.
It makes you a very funny person.
so funny that I can even quote yourself on this
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5692627
Didn't he say she's still around?
5692627
5692629
She is 100% still around. Her contract expired but she literally just didn't leave, and the landlord didn't do anything because that would mean putting in any amount of work whatsoever. So she's just still there, living it up.
5692631
I wish I could say I was sarcastically sorry for your loss, but she's not gone, so, I ask you to please pretend I said something funny.
Is it weird that I find your travails sort of cozy and comforting? I think it might be a little weird.
5692631
I think the power of passive resistance is generally grossly underappreciated.
I've never gone from excited by proxy to confused and a little concerned so quickly.
Ah, electrified showers. A classic of early XXth century SPAs with avant-garde medical treatments and of plumbing done with more enthusiasm than competence.
They sound like the American equivalent of your neighbor, Mrs. Stabbington.
5692763
5692654
Oh no no no they were all delightful, that bit about the crying was mostly me joking. They were taller than me, mind, but they were nice about it.
The mom took a liking to me instantly, because moms tend to always like me? I don't know if it's my raw charisma or the fact that I look seven minutes away from death at all times, but they always find me charming and delightful. I brought them sweets from Spain, so that probably also helped. They were good sweets. The mom was super nice.
The dad took a bit more to warm up to me cause he's shy? But then I started talking about boring stuff (law, mostly), and that awoke his dad instincts. He was like, that sounds boring. Tell me more. And before you knew it he was calling me 'champ' and asking me to come back any time soon, and all that.
So like, great trip. It's just, holy shit. Americans are way too tall, right. I felt pocket-sized in Ohio.
5692771
you were in fucking Ohio and told no one??? D:
Happy Birthday!
5692846
I told my girlfriend!
Heh. A while ago some work was happening in my neighbourhood. It's a 1930's neighbourhood, so things like cables and pipes will not necessarily be in the place city hall thinks they are.
So anyway, this crew turns up and just blindly follows city hall plannings, and imagine absolutely no resident's surprise when the fire brigade has to turn up three times a week because they hit yet another gas pipe. This goes on for a week or three, when the entire crew suddenly gets replaced by real professionals that actually know what they're doing. The work itself goes slower now, as in: when they're working, they don't progress as fast as the earlier crew. But over the course of a week, these people cover more ground because not hitting gas pipes also means not doing nothing for 5 hours every time a pipe was hit. Again.
To this date I still don't know why but I find the whole thing extremely funny.