Vacations are good. I keep reminding myself as to the truth of that simple statement. But every time I begin to prepare for one, something fall apart! It's like I'm a bit haunted. The biggest mess this time I thought was a topper since it will involve an electician and a pile of money. Let me lay the torid story out for you.
We had invited my brother, Scott and his son, Trav down for the weekend and were having fun just being together. Saturday night we were, or should I say the guys were deciding what to watch on TV. It was going to be a Nascar race which my nephew really wanted to see, or the Antique Road Show. We'd just finished dinner and I was working on finishing the the dishes and smiling at the rather heated discussion that was coming from what should have been a simple choice of programing. I finished quickly not wanting to get into the middle of this discussion and headed off to the TV room/computer room to get some time online before they all invaded the area.
As I clicked around to find if I had any email, everything in that end of the house went totally black. I sat there in the dark wondering if, or when we might get everything back on again. When I realized it was just the area where I sat that was dark and that it wasn't coming on any time soon, I decided I needed help.
"Could someone check the breaker box downstairs, I think we've blown a circuit braker!" I yelled. I didn't want to try to mess with electrical things of any kind since that whole thing is confusing to me and I haven't been able to figure out which switch was for what room.
"Yea, yea, I'll check," my husband yelled back.
After a few minutes with no movement on the change in the light of the room, my brother, Scott and I headed downstairs and there we heard my dear husband, Charlie muttering to himself, "not here, either. Nope not that one." as he walked from one electrical junture box to another in the basement.
"It's not just the breaker?" I asked.
"Nope," he responded glumly, as we followed him around like curious children he checked all the easy fix problems without discovering the cause of our outage.
"What kind of mess is this going to end up being?," I thought as we looked at each other before he moved on again to inspect another electical box.
With no options for me to help downstairs I decided the tension was getting to be too much for me and headed up to entertain my nephew and to get a flashlight for my husband so he could further inspect our houses wiring system. Over the next few minutes as Trav and I talked various parts of the house's lights were uncerimoniously clicked off and on all around us in the hopes that one would help him discover which area was the problem area.
Over a period of 20 minutes this went on with the muttering getting more pronounced as each click provided no further information on what had caused this electrial mess for us. Suddenly, there was a shout of, "Eurika!" as my husband made the discovery of the circuit and then began tracing back the wires with Scott following on his heals with our flashlight.
Then began the arduious task of tracing all the lines connected to that main line and checking them to discover the culprit for the total darkness that still enveloped the rooms, which by now included our bedroom as well. A tense frustration had become almost tangible after an hour of searching with no results.
The hour expanded to two, and then three hours of poking and inspecting wires to see if the internal vessels would again carry the "juice" to those dark parts of our world. My husband stomped slowly up the stairs in a dark and disappointed mood. He went out to his shop and brought in long extension cords to get us through the next few days, since we had one more day to endure and I needed to complete an article I had been working on for the local news paper. There would be nothing more we could do until the electrician was called on Monday.
My house is my clutter mansion with fur from our sheherd mix dog scattered behind everything and I was concerned about having to do that super clean trick before I could let any repairman into the house. Monday was going to prove a marathon for me if I was to get the place spotless before the expert showed up. I'm a writer, not a cleaner!!
The end has yet to be written because the "man" has not shown up, and the electricty has gone on and off a few times since the total 12 hour blackout. My house is empty of family and fur now, but I leave on Friday and the deed has not been accomplished yet. My vacation disaster has topped any prior experience I've had, but it has also given me stories to share when I finally arrive at my holiday destination. Oh, well. The worst is over...for the time being anyway!
To be continued....
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