sunshine0221's Diaryland Diary
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Why I Hate the 4th of July and Love Extension Cords
Why I Hate the 4th of July and Love Extension Cords
I don't consider myself to be an unpatriotic person. I mean, we have a pretty cool country, and I am happy to live here. I am as happy to celebrate Hey We Kicked British Ass Day as anyone. But I seem to be missing the Feel The Need to Light Things That Explode and Make Loud Noises gene. I hate firecrackers. I have never liked loud noises. And every year, the neighbors kids on both sides of my house, go ape with the fireworks. Always late at night, and always the loud obnoxious ones.
And after the evening of July 4th - and I did not think this was possible - I hate fireworks even more. I had just sat down at my computer, heard an especially loud firecracker go off nearby, and *poof* computer goes off. Also power in bathroom and kitchen, and in the Mom's house - fridge, freezer, bathroom, TV, and bedroom.
Half my power went out. It was weird - no circuit breakers had flipped, my power was just half not there. I ran around with extension cords and got my computer and the Mom's freezer and fridge back running, and then called the power company. When you call customer service at 10:30 pm on the 4th of July, there is the I Am About To Die option, and the I Don't Mind Being On Hold For the Rest of My Life option. I hesitated to say that it was a life or death emergency, because really I had no clue what was going on - other than my power had been attacked by a firework. However, after being on hold listening to the perky recording lady for almost 45 minutes, I called back and selected the Emergency Option. And was only on hold for ten minutes with that one. Glad I wasn't being strangled by a live electrical cable or something. So I explain the situation to the Customer Service person (you can feel free to insert some air quotes around that), and she said she would send someone out, but if it turned out to be my problem not theirs they would charge me for a service call.
Decision time. The best I could tell, nothing was on fire. And I am saving my money to purchase supplies to make Pina Colada soap with Sparkles, and I had everything critical back up and running, so I told Unhelpful Customer Service Person to cancel the service call. And also muttered under my breath that if I did get fried or something I was so going to come back and haunt her.
I was fearing that my wiring had been fried by the evil firecracker, and was much relieved when my electrician came out the next morning and said that "One phase was completely dead, and the other one was weak". I have no idea what that means, but was overjoyed that it was a utility company problem, not a rewire-the-whole-house-and-never-be-able-to-afford-to-make-Pina Colada-Soap-with-Sparkles problem.
The repair dude came by later that day, and a wire way up in the trees was burnt up. He fixed it, and everything is fine now. But I still hate firecrackers.
In other news, I received some spam from a Mr. Poultry F. Seizures today. I just may have to marry him. How cool would it be to be Mrs. Seizures? Of course, I would have to avoid eating chicken and turkey and stuff, because that would just be cannabalistic and wrong.
AND - in honor of the 4th of July - HyVee had Patriotic Bundt Cake!! Again, we should all buy food coloring stock because look at this thing!
Happy belated 4th of July Y'all.
9:19 p.m. - July 07, 2005
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