Annabella Rose

My niece, Bella, recently had some photos taken that we are anxiously awaiting. While looking for some preview pictures online, we came across an advertisement that has her picture in it! That is my niece on the right! Isn't she cute? Practically drooling through that grin.

Light up my life

Before we purchased our house we noticed there was a bunch of romex wiring exposed in the garage. We asked the realtor to find out if it was live or not. If it was live, we wanted it closed up.

She got back to us and set it was all dead. It was put in for some small projects to install security lights outside and a light in the extended section of our garage but was never finished. No electricity flowing.

Two weeks ago one of my weekend small projects was to get a light switch to install in the side wall by our weight set and get those security lights working so we can see at night when we go out to our garbage totes. The other part was to install a small light bulb fixture above the workout section of the garage into the drywall ceiling (no studs up there).

I grabbed my trusty line tester to see if the supposed lines were really dead or not. The one from the ceiling was live if a flip was switched and dead when off. (i deduced this by seeing the wiring in the attic and from the tester). This light bulb thing should be simple (and it was). Piece of cake!

Then I headed over to the wiring in the wall near the weight set and also next to the auto sprinkler controller. The first line was dead as dead can be.

The second line sticking out, however, was not. An arc very bright in the dim garage connected the two ends of my tester, blowing out the bulb, sending smoke in the air, killing everything in that wall, and sending me flying back more scared than anything else.

"Sonofa!" I yelled. Hard to blame the realtor for being lied to, but come on. That line was brushed every time I changed weights on the weight set or reset the sprinklers' controls. That set had even been used by my squirley nephew. Any one of us could have grabbed on and gotten the shock from hell. I was pissed.

Go flip the breaker, and nothing. The entire wall is still dead. Uh oh! I hope I didn't melt any wiring inside the wall.

Back to the hardware store I go to buy a stud finder that also detects AC magnetic fields to help trace wiring inside a wall. There was power going all the way to where I wanted it, but everything was dead. Then I found a GFI that had popped hiding in the socket the sprinklers were plugged into. It was the only one in the house I didn't know about. Hit "reset" and we are ready to go.

Long story short, I installed the switch and now the security lights work great and no one died, thankfully! During the process I found out that our phone lines also have AC current running on them which explains why we have problems with our phones. The wiring in our attic is a mess. Not sure who installed it, but they have power lines running too close to the phone lines and the magnetic fields are interfering with each other. Too big of a job for me, but calling an electrician to rewire the entire house would be ridiculous. So, screwy phone lines for now.

the End.

Catastrophe, almost

About a month ago I was having a real rough week at work. Stress level was pretty high and looking back I can't even remember why. All I know was that I felt like I was at an emotional breaking point.

Fade in 2nd period PreCalculus class on a Friday.

My phone rings about 20 minutes into class. The principal's secretary tells me that a neighbor called and said a pipe burst and my house might be flooding, what should she do?

I had images of the pipes in the master bath broken and spewing water all over our new house and our cat trying to stay dry by moving to higher ground. That is the one sink that spits out white, cloudy water and we don't know why, other than that we have hard well water with high calcium.

I had a security guard come cover my class as I still stayed an extra 5 minutes to explain the assignment I needed my students to attempt to complete. Then I ran to the office grabbing my car/house keys and cell phone. I sprinted to my car, unlocked it, and opened the door.

Whoops! The handle to my car door broke off in my hand. Cursing, I threw the handle in the car (still not replaced), got in and drove the speed limit the entire way home. (They have been ticketing people on my route home, but I always drive the speed limit anyway). I wanted to floor it.

I pull into my drove and the whole front yard is soaked, but this was not surprising. My auto sprinklers should have shut off only about 20 minutes earlier. I open the garage and run in. I turn around to run back out to shut off the water first, hit my ratchet set and send about one hundred sockets skittering across the garage floor.

Get the water shut off and run into the house via the garage. I realize I left the door open and I have to go chase my cat who was in the garage (and is unfamiliar with the area since we had just moved). I coax her back into the house. Run inside and can't find water anywhere.

Scratching my head I go back outside, this time making sure to close the door with the cat inside. I turn the water back in and then resurvey the yards and the house. Nothing. So, I go turn the sprinklers on. Water is gushing out from a broken sprinkler head in the front yard near the street.

That's it?!! A broken sprinkler? All of this for a broken sprinkler?

I go to our neighbor's house to say "thank you" for being concerned enough to track me down. That was pretty considerate when you think about it. I had not even met this woman yet (85 year old East Indian woman. Extremely friendly and looks like she is 65). She knew I worked at the high school, that was it. So she called and gave my address and that was how they found me. Then she explained why she bothered me at work when she knew it was just a sprinkler.

Turns out that a few years ago another neighbor had a sprinkler break and they didn't contact them. But they also have auto sprinklers and they never shut off in the back, which eventually flooded their house. She said she would have hated for that to happen to us. We seemed nice to her and she sees how hard we have been working to get the yards and the house in shape. Very cool!

So... I was at my emotional breaking point. Call about my house comes in. Handle breaks off in my hand. A mess in my garage made up of sockets I will have to resort. Cat almost escaped. Etc. etc. Then, since it was not a "true" emergency, I was not allowed to take the rest of the day off of work. I had to go back or they would dock my pay. Lame.

The End.

Dusting off

Time to dust off the um....well, dust and cobwebs on this ahere blog. Expect 2-3 entries in the next day or two getting you up to speed on our last month+. It has been hectic, to say the least, but not all of it is bad. We are in a good place right now. More to come....