Friday, May 28, 2010

Solution to Word Problem of the Day


After the dryer quit and the brand new swamp cooler burned out this morning, I decided maybe these incidents were not coincidental.  (I'm a little slow sometimes.)  Feeling slight trepidations about the house possibly burning down tonight, I had a sudden inspiration to pick up the phone and call the power company.  Explaining to the nice lady that all of our electric appliances were being taken out, one by one, I asked whether we were having big power surges for the past few days.  No, she said.  She would send a technician out immediately to check our voltage.  In my ignorance I thought, How could it be the voltage?  What could possibly go wrong outside the house, that would cause all this trouble? How could the voltage to my house be more than that going to everyone else in the neighborhood?   But I thanked her, assuming we would either have to find a good, but very cheap, electrician late on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend, in a vacation community on the river (right), or be resigned to live like Mary and Laura Ingalls until sometime next week.

The tech came right over, and without warning, flipped the main circuit breaker off.  The girls' blogging was rudely interrupted!  Oh you should have seen how paralyzed these children were.  Without lights and electricity, they could not think of one thing to do!  (I laughed at them.)  Sure enough, according to the little voltage meter, our house was getting wayyy too much voltage.  How that happens, I don't know, except that a transformer wears out and wreaks havoc.  The service truck was called out, and four little looky-loo's were very entertained watching two skilled workmen replace a transformer right in our own backyard.  See Amy's recent post, complete with photos.  Within two hours, all told, everything was running again.  God is good to us, so good.  I thought we were going to have to replace a dryer and another swamp cooler motor and the air conditioner, too!

My dear husband phoned to tell me that I had just risen miles in his already high estimation of me for having the smarts to call the power company before the holiday weekend was upon us. :-D  He said it was worth many, many points.  (You know we women only award one point at a time, right?)  Now if I do something really, really dumb, it will be okay.  He will still love me. ;-)

5 comments:

  1. Wow, you are just soooo smart! It would have never dawned on me about the power surge thing. Now your electric bill will be going way down, right? :) Glad you will be able to keep cool & dry this weekend.

    Wow, your family operates on a point system? Hope you grade on a curve for friends.

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  2. Wow! I was just catching up on your news and I was like "Wow!" I am glad that you thought about calling the electric company and that they came right out and fixed it. At least it was a good "school" lesson for the girls.

    I like your new weblook. It uploads alot faster as well! :)

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  3. hi
    my favoret thing to do is to play logos lol that isn't my absaluetly my faavret thing to do but prity much lol
    bye

    (sorry for bad spellig)

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  4. Does insurance cover some of these costs? I am with Jane. I would not have thought of that.
    Jenn

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  5. Actually everything that conked out the other day has started working again. The only think I'm not sure about is the oven thermostat,and if that has to be replaced we can just send the receipt in to the power company for reimbursement. :) I did not think about our own homeowner's insurance, but I'm pretty sure this stuff wouldn't meet our deductible! Good tip for next time, though. Thanks!

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