So I kind of alluded (sp?) to some recent electrical problems in a recent blog, but I did not full out blog about them and since I just paid a bill for said electrical problems, now seems like an appropriate time to blog. Also, I think I can be less bitter about said problems since they've since been resolved--well, at least temporarily resolved, but I digress...
Nov. 18th, I had to work late and then I went to my dance class after work so by the time I got home after 9:00pm (I'd left the house before 7:30am), I was tired. I had a few things to do (i.e. make my lunch for the next day, check e-mail, and of course check the ever important blogs, FB, etc). Anyway, I was kind of warm from dance so it took me a little while to realize my heat wasn't working in the living room, or the hall, or ANYWHERE. I'm one of those people that's always cold so as you can imagine I was slightly (translation: EXTREMELY) irritated. Several people had suggestions of things I could do to make my heat work again, but nothing worked, but I did get to practice using the fuse box multiple times. So eventually, I went to bed, piled on the blankets, got up, piled on more blankets and woke up freezing around 12:30. I eventually fell back to sleep and woke up at 5:30. Something seemed different and eventually I realized I couldn't see the clock on my VCR. Yes, I said VCR. I have a DVD player downstairs in the living room, but I still own a VCR and it's in my bedroom, though truth be told now I use it more for seeing what time it is if I wake up in the night than to watch tapes. Anyway, as it turned out I had NO electricity. A quick cold look out the window showed the people on one side of me had power as did the people two houses down. I called PSNH around 6 and after having a lovely one-sided conversation with a recording was transferred to a real person. In the midst of our conversation, I saw my next door neighbor's light come on. The PSNH lady said they could send someone out, but since it was not business hours it could cost over $200 if it was something internal. So I went to work extra early that day (should have just slept there since I wasn't even gone for 12 hours) and called an electrician at 7:30. My boss said I could leave work 5 minutes early so I could be home to meet the electrician. He was early! I thought electricians, plumbers, cable people, etc, were always late. Go figure! Anyway, after approximately 15-20 cold dark minutes he told me I had to call PSNH, there was nothing he could do. And yes, darlings, I paid him $75 for that. I got my bill the other day and I understand that they're not going to come out for free and there was nothing they could do, but I still feel the need to complain about spending $75 for them to tell me to call PSNH. He offered to call for me, but I was capable of doing it, do you think if I'd let him call it would have made the $75 seem more reasonable?
I actually had to have the electrician come back the following week for a problem they could fix and I tried to get a frequent customer discount since this was my third call in 5 months, but no luck. :) So I called PSNH and had another lovely one-sided conversation with a recording. Then a real person actually called me back and asked if I really wanted them to send someone. Now the woman was very nice, but there was a teeny tiny part of me that wanted to pull out the sarcasm and say, "No, I don't. I really enjoy freezing, not being able to see, and not being able to do anything besides pace around my living room because it's too cold to do anything and too hard to see anything since it's getting dark out. Thanks for asking though!" But like I said, she was nice and I'm not quite that rude so I just said something along the lines of yes, please. I just had an electrician here and he told me I had to call you. I think he knows what he's talking about so please send someone.
They had someone there within an hour, but they couldn't fix it so they had to call for back up. I loved that one of the back ups stood there smoking a cigarette and holding a flashlight while the other guys worked. How much do you think he gets paid to do that? :-p Anyway, a couple of hours later, I was a happy girl because I had heat and electricity. However, they couldn't permanently fix the burned out underground wire since they had to dig up the road etc so they ran a wire across my carport, up the side of my house, around some trees, across the top of my house to my neighbor's house and said they should be able to dig up the ground and replace the burned out wire in the spring. Pray for no ice storms or falling trees people or else I might be asking to come stay at your house.
But at least I had my heat back.
Unfortunately, the next day, I had no hot water. It took a call to PSNH (who was very nice this time, but unable to help me) and a friend's husband to restore my hot water. Apparently, even though my breaker was on, it wasn't really on and needed to be updated--hence the aforementioend call to the electrician a few days later. Anyway, my friend's husband fixed my breaker so it was really on and I finally had everything working again. Yay! Next up: replace hot water heater and dishwasher.
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