My generator just coughed and I heard NEPA laugh from somewhere

I was deep in a code review at 2am, finally hitting flow state. Then my generator coughed. Not the normal sound it makes when fuel is low. This was a cough with meaning. Three seconds later, silence. And in that silence, I swear I heard NEPA laugh from somewhere in the darkness.

Now I'm sitting here with my laptop at 14% battery, phone at 23%, and a power bank that I forgot to charge. The inverter beeped once and gave up. My neighbour's generator is still running strong and I can hear him laughing too. Actually, he's not laughing. He's watching a movie. I can hear the sound effects. The man is living his best life while I calculate how many lines of code I can commit before my battery dies.

Lagos is the only place where you can earn in dollars and still be defeated by a generator that refuses to cooperate. The numbers say I should have bought solar by now. But the numbers also say my generator has been working fine for two years. Until tonight. Now I'm sitting in the dark wondering if I should just sleep and pretend this sprint deadline doesn't exist.