Huge thunderstorm and winds last night. Power went off, and when I turned on the main breaker, it flipped off again – a short somewhere. Lights were on in other houses, but it was time to go to bed, so no big deal.
This morning I turned all but the main breaker off, flipping them on one at a time until I found the culprit – my wife’s office upstairs. Unplugged everything there, but the breaker still tripped. Maybe the breaker is bad? I wasn’t sure I knew how to replace one, so best to call an electrician.
I needed to call Syd for the electrician’s number. However the wifi router, which includes the land line, wouldn’t turn on. Since we lost one to a lightning strike shortly after arriving here, I assumed whatever messed up the circuit breaker fried the router as well. Meanwhile there was no cellular network available for voice calls. Say what? Walked next door to Wayne and Janet’s, used their land line to call Syd, which took some jiggering, since for some reason their phone was switched from tone to pulse dialing. Then got a message that Syd’s phone was out of service (turns out I must have dialed wrong). Wayne used his cel phone to call a handyman who “speaks great English,” and after hearing him apparently having a bit of trouble understanding Wayne, I took the phone and arranged in Spanish for him to come by, but the earliest he could do was late afternoon.
Then decided maybe I should replace the breaker myself, so went to the local electric store, asked instructions and bought another. While I was out, I went by Syd’s – their phone was fine. Stopped by a kiosk and added minutes to my prepaid phone – I couldn’t make voice calls because I had no minutes. Stopped by the phone company to find out what number to call about the router. Finally got through to them, and set up a visit from tech support.
Back home, I managed to remove the circuit breaker, and tested it with a voltmeter – it was fine. So I reinstalled it, and was struggling to replace the breaker panel cover, which inexplicably is a total bitch. Wife goes to shower, informs me there is no hot water. For the first time I realize the water heater, in an outside patio closet, is on the same circuit as her office. Unplug the water heater, no problem with the circuit breaker.
So while it’s unplugged, I remove the control face plate, see what looks like a reset button inside, press it, plug in the water heater, go downstairs and the breaker is fine! Back upstairs, I see the light is on and so it’s working, and I go to replace the face plate and *fwap* something shorts. So our water heater now has the control face plate hanging off its side, and otherwise is functioning normally, a “let sleeping dogs lie” kind of repair.
And about the router – a year or two ago I decided to cut down on wifi radiation, so strung ethernet cables for my wife’s and my computers. I only turn it on for brief periods of time, for iPad updates or to load reading material I have stored online. Suddenly I realize that I have been trying to turn it on using the wifi on-off button, not the power on-off button. Yes, that would make a difference. So that’s solved, and after seventeen attempts, I finally get through to tech support to cancel the visit. Also let the handyman know he didn’t need to come by.
The next time I see a dog chasing its tail, I will remember this day.
