Reported by Larrie upon his return from the airport on Monday:
This whole sequence was prompted by Allison pinging Larrie via SMS to see if he had booked Jess's riding lesson for Sunday.
When we walked in the door, there was no power. It took a few moments to figure that out, and to deduce that the power was not coming back on. I got Allison's lunch packed and sent Imtiaz on his way, then I changed my clothes into something more fitting the heat, grabbed my meter and headed for the power box. The control gizmo that switches back and forth between main and generator was blinking generator. So, I figured something was wrong, and Jess and I went to the maintenance office to get an electrician.
They came about 10 min later, but just before they got there, we went back on main power; so, no problem. "Call us when the generator is on" as if you can only fix the roof when it's raining. Not 2 minutes after they vanished into the ether, we go back on generator, and same thing happens. I had attempted to boot the PC in the meantime. I waited for them to return as they said they would, but no show; so, off the maintenance office again.
This time they took 20 minutes to show up, and I had had enough time to figure out that we were only getting 120v rather than 240v and the relay was not working properly. So, after they arrived, it took another 20 minutes to explain the problem. Off to the main panel at the end of the block, where we discovered that at some time in the past a copper wire was used to extend an aluminium wire, and the joint has suffered from dielectric corrosion. The USA outlawed the use of aluminium wire in houses in the 50's due to the danger.
They fixed the main panel, then went back to the house where it took another 20 minutes to wire it properly and put it back together. Finally, 240v on generator.
So, I started to boot the PC again and got caught in an auto-update which locked up the machine. Another half dozen attempts to test the switching from main to generator, a locked up PC, and I started a cold boot from a hard down. I was just getting email working when I got Allison's SMS.
Why not respond by phone you might ask. Well my cell phone was pretty well discharged, and to recharge it required electricity.
Top it all off, there is another water line break on our street - our 4th / 5th this season - and we have no water. Gotta love this neighborhood and it's infrastructure! Keeps it interesting... Palm Meadows is losing the luster it once had.
This whole sequence was prompted by Allison pinging Larrie via SMS to see if he had booked Jess's riding lesson for Sunday.
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