urbandruid (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
urbandruid) wrote2007-04-20 01:43 pm
urbandruid) wrote2007-04-20 01:43 pm
Entry tags:
Revenge of the Wires
They're putting in a Wallgreens drug store and a little strip mall up at the main cross streets about a block from my house. Well and good, we need more shops out here, because there's not a lot.
But. Every time they go to work on the lights for the parking lot, or, I don't know, whatever the hell they think they're doing out there, #1, it cuts out the traffic light for the four-way stop. It's not a fun street crossing even when the light is working, and it's been out all week, except for Wednesday, when it was, miraculously, working.
#2, and it's #2 that's annoying me most lately, something they're doing up there is messing with our telephone lines. For 'messing with', read 'phones sort of don't work'. Last time the light was out, the main telephone line to the house was out.
This time, it's just my line, the one we paid to have the phone company wire in for us. It's been out since Thursday morning, and it's starting to piss me off. I've got my laptop plugged into the main line in Mom's room, but this isn't gonna work forever, obviously. And you guys know how much of a night owl I am. Mom goes to bed a lot earlier than I do on the weekends.
Plus, we kind of need the main line. Not a lot of people call, sure, but it's the principal of the thing. Actually the only people who've called lately have been my grandparents, and they're having their own phone problems at the moment. Theirs isn't working either. It did this once before a few months ago, and they thought they'd fixed it. Apparently not.
I wonder about the wiring in their house sometimes. We went over last weekend and brought them some of the light fixtures we took out of our place when we installed the ceiling fans, to see if they could use them. They have one fixture in their office/computer room that's just a pair of bare bulbs, so we thought we'd put up one of the nicer ones instead. It took us a while to get that done, because we didn't bring Mom's tools, and the grandparents' are a little scattered. But we got it hooked up, and were admiring our handiwork when we decided before we put the cover on, we'd pop a light bulb into the fixture and see if it worked. Expecting, as one does, that it will work.
So I go over and hit the light switch- and all the power in the room goes out. The lamp we'd plugged in to see with, and the computer, which they on for some reason... Our first thought was, "is it a power outage?" No dice. So we go to check the circuit breaker box. Sure enough, we flipped the breaker when we turned on the light switch.
So. Turn the breaker back on, and try again. With the same result. We figure we got some wire twisted or kinked or something when we swapped out the fixtures, but I don't know... The electrical in that place has worried me for a while now. It's forty years old, and I don't care what we did to the wiring in the office, there's no way changing a freaking light fixture should have flipped the circuit breaker.
And between the electircal issues and the phone thing, I keep thinking, How in the hell are we going to sell this place? Because the place is getting to be too much for them to keep up, and they want to sell it. None of us want to sell a place to people where the wires might burst into flames and stuff, obviously, but, it's a pain for us, anyway. Don't know what they're gonna do about the light in that room, either- we all decided to leave it last weekend.
It's Revenge of the Wiring this week, or something like that.
But. Every time they go to work on the lights for the parking lot, or, I don't know, whatever the hell they think they're doing out there, #1, it cuts out the traffic light for the four-way stop. It's not a fun street crossing even when the light is working, and it's been out all week, except for Wednesday, when it was, miraculously, working.
#2, and it's #2 that's annoying me most lately, something they're doing up there is messing with our telephone lines. For 'messing with', read 'phones sort of don't work'. Last time the light was out, the main telephone line to the house was out.
This time, it's just my line, the one we paid to have the phone company wire in for us. It's been out since Thursday morning, and it's starting to piss me off. I've got my laptop plugged into the main line in Mom's room, but this isn't gonna work forever, obviously. And you guys know how much of a night owl I am. Mom goes to bed a lot earlier than I do on the weekends.
Plus, we kind of need the main line. Not a lot of people call, sure, but it's the principal of the thing. Actually the only people who've called lately have been my grandparents, and they're having their own phone problems at the moment. Theirs isn't working either. It did this once before a few months ago, and they thought they'd fixed it. Apparently not.
I wonder about the wiring in their house sometimes. We went over last weekend and brought them some of the light fixtures we took out of our place when we installed the ceiling fans, to see if they could use them. They have one fixture in their office/computer room that's just a pair of bare bulbs, so we thought we'd put up one of the nicer ones instead. It took us a while to get that done, because we didn't bring Mom's tools, and the grandparents' are a little scattered. But we got it hooked up, and were admiring our handiwork when we decided before we put the cover on, we'd pop a light bulb into the fixture and see if it worked. Expecting, as one does, that it will work.
So I go over and hit the light switch- and all the power in the room goes out. The lamp we'd plugged in to see with, and the computer, which they on for some reason... Our first thought was, "is it a power outage?" No dice. So we go to check the circuit breaker box. Sure enough, we flipped the breaker when we turned on the light switch.
So. Turn the breaker back on, and try again. With the same result. We figure we got some wire twisted or kinked or something when we swapped out the fixtures, but I don't know... The electrical in that place has worried me for a while now. It's forty years old, and I don't care what we did to the wiring in the office, there's no way changing a freaking light fixture should have flipped the circuit breaker.
And between the electircal issues and the phone thing, I keep thinking, How in the hell are we going to sell this place? Because the place is getting to be too much for them to keep up, and they want to sell it. None of us want to sell a place to people where the wires might burst into flames and stuff, obviously, but, it's a pain for us, anyway. Don't know what they're gonna do about the light in that room, either- we all decided to leave it last weekend.
It's Revenge of the Wiring this week, or something like that.