Technical difficulties

On Sunday night we had some power-issues and one wall of our house was without power. Kirb checked the breaker box downstairs and everything seemed ok. It was a mystery. We had some friends over for dinner and had a great time with them -- we just had to relocated the coffee maker, since its outlet was one of the one's not working, and run an extension cord so the kids could watch Kung Fu Panda, otherwise things went on as planned and a good time was had by all! Then we thought maybe it was a fuse. Our house was built in the 20's and most of the electricity has been upgraded {although I use that term loosely since it's still REALLY old stuff!} but some of it is still run by fuses. We've lived here for 11 years now and have never blown a fuse {electrically speaking, that is!}. We checked and checked and that didn't seem to be the problem as far as we could tell.

I asked my dad to come over Monday morning to see if he had any thoughts on the matter. He didn't see any problems with the fuses either . . . after twisting all 8 of them out and back in again and listening to Joe yell reports of what went off and on we moved on to the breaker box.

The breakers all looked like they were in the "on" position, but on further examination my dad found that one of them was not working. It was kind of "wiggly" and wouldn't "click" into the on or off position, so he decided it was broken and had blown out or something. This hadn't ever happened at our house before. He went across the street to our little, local hardware store that stocks everything and can help you with ANY problem! No luck . . . they didn't carry that part . . . too old! They sent him to an electrical supply place not too far away who had what we needed. Not the exact same part, but they said it would do the job. So my dad tripped off the {big} main breaker at the top of the box so he would be safe while trying to replace the faulty one. He's never done this particular task before, but he's not scared to just try stuff and see how it turns out (which sometimes makes me a little nervous. Shouldn't we have a professional do this, or at least be certain that it's the right thing to do?) Now, you need to understand that initially the electricity in our house was about 85% working fine and normal. But, we wanted to fix the 15% that wasn't working. (2 kitchen outlets, the outlet on the opposite side of the kitchen wall where we plug in the TV and stereo and that stuff, and the girls main bedroom light and 1 (but NOT both) of their outlets). We could live without this power, but we'd rather not.

My dad gets the broken breaker {do you find that funny too . . . "broken breaker", or is it just me?} fixed and then goes to turn the main power back on. Nothin'. Yup, nothing! The main breaker won't click back into the ON position.

So now we have basically NO power in our house . . . well, that's not entirely true. Somehow the 15% stuff that wasn't working before was now working just fine even though the main breaker box was off {mysterious and a little scary!} but the rest of the power was not working. So . . . no heat, no stove, no microwave, food warmin' up in the fridge and freezer. No laundry {which REALLY needed to get done}, no phone {since they are cordless and plug into the wall!}. Ahhh, but we COULD make coffee! And did I mention it was lunch time for my 2 kiddos that were home and had pretty much been ignored all morning as we worked on this mystery! So we call the electrical place and ask if they have the main breaker switch part that seems to be having the exact same problem that the little one was having just a little while ago. Well, they stock that part but they don't have one on hand right now. They do, however have one in Duluth that could be here by "tomorrow!". Umm, let's see no power until tomorrow. No thanks. I hang up and tell my dad and pray and call Kirb and tell him and pray some more and try to figure out what to do.

My dad has an appointment to meet a man about a job . . . I know, it sounds a little illegal, but it's the truth. So he has to go.

I pray a little more and wonder what we can do. We can't really afford to call in a real electrician to fix us . . . I imagine that will not be cheap. Hindsight is always so much clearer and I keep thinking to myself, we would have been totally fine without power on that one wall. Now it's all messed up! I prayed some more and tried not to get all worked up. Kirb cancelled a meeting and said he'd come home and see what he could do. Now, I love him like crazy but he's not a handyman usually. He is good at tons of stuff, but is also aware of areas that he is not an expert in. He lets professionals change his oil and fix his car and install his new toilet and stuff . . . and he also tries to stay away from major electrical work! Miraculously {in all seriousness, it WAS a miracle, following lots of prayer} when he gets down to the breaker box he pushes it up in to the on position {which both my dad and I had done} and it stays. Praise God. The power is back! There are, obviously, a few missing details but you've read my ramblings quite long enough already {thank you!} and they aren't important so, basically, that's that!

Here come the deep thoughts . . .

It didn't end up being a fuse problem in the end, but it got me thinking a little about fuses. I know the phrase "blew a fuse", and have for a long time, but hadn't really ever thought about it before, in the literal sense. Our fuses are designed to take so much. They can actually handle quite a bit, but if every single thing that depends on them all is suckin' energy out of them at the same time, they can't take it . . . they blow and need to be replaced. Yikes! That's a good reminder, I think, for every day life. I {and you too} am designed to be able to take quite a bit. But there is a point where I can't take any more and I need to know when I am approaching that point and unplug some stuff before it's too late.

How about you?