Saturday, July 03, 2010

Hella Week


Its been one hella week. I came home Monday from spending the day with Jen The Birthday Girl to all sorta electrical fuckery. Of course, I didn't know that when I walked in the door.

I had stopped and picked up Burger King on the way home because I didn't feel like cooking after being pampered all afternoon. So I plopped the bag down at the desk, turn on the tv and start to munch while catching up on email. My internet connection was wonky and I had to reset the modem several times. Was starting to wonder WFT when the tv popped off. Aha -- the cable is out and they will fix it soon.

Wrong.

A little bit later, I noticed the lights were either very bright or very dim. The microwave didn't work nor did the stovetop. Shit, the ghost in the wiring was back. The only appliance not affected was my coffee maker plugged into a GFI plug -- thank goodness -- I hate making coffee by heating water on the wood stove and then using the french press.

My internet connection came back up around 11pm, I sent off an email to my landlord describing the problem. The tv would not turn back on but I had tubes so it was ok. I went to bed hoping that since the wifi was now working, whatever had woke up the ghost in the wires was settling down and I would wake up in the morning all would be back to normal.

Wrong.

Tuesday I had neither tv nor internet -- the modem and wifi router, which had been working when I went to bed had no lights -- but the landlord was on his way so I waited patiently. He got here mid-afternoon and figured out that it wasn't an internal to the house error -- there were wild voltage swings from 156 to 33 on the 110 circuits -- he shut down all power to the house and called the electric company (PUD).

The PUD guy showed up and discovered a broken neutral ground wire where the PUD cable connects to the roof jack. He made a temporary fix, got the power restored and said that PUD would send out a crew in the morning (it was almost 6pm when he left). I checked and everything was working again except for the one year old 32" flat screen tv and the cable modem and wifi router -- all of which had been plugged into power strip surge protectors and all of which were fried.

Oy.

Wednesday morning the landlord picked up a new cable modem from the cable company, a new wifi router from the store, and got me connected again. He also had stopped by PUD and picked up a claim form for me to fill out for the now only good to use as a doorstop flatscreen tv. PUD sent a crew and a couple trucks around 1pm and they completely replaced the electrical cable from the street to the house. Of course, they had to turn off the power while they restrung new cable and redid the connection to the house but had everything reconnected by mid-afternoon. Luckily, I ended up only missing work Tues night.

I have hauled out the little tv from the bedroom (it had survived) and have been slowly catching up on all that I missed online. I have learned that if given a choice between no tv and no internet, I would choose to have internet *if* I was given a choice. Monday night was less stressful with no tv and having the internet than Tuesday night with no internet and a working tv.

Picture up top is of the result of Monday's fun getting spa manicures and pedicures.

9 comments:

  1. A big pain in the but Suzanne but what I also see here is it appears from your story you got real decent service from all and that's one of the good things about living here when the system works.

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  2. hey one fly. i have the best landlords -- they live over the hill in portland (an hour and a half away) and they are always johnny on the spot if something comes up.

    right now, he is taking apart my back deck and building a new one. then he is gonna do the same with the front deck. he declared they were past their prime earlier this spring.

    PUD was really nice too -- their claim form is just a one page form and the process looks pretty hassle free.

    i love living in oregon -- the people up here are so nice. hard to say which is nicer -- the gorgeous scenery or the people. i'm lucky to be in a state with both.

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  3. Anonymous11:58 PM

    What about the flat screen???

    Loo Hoo.

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  4. hey loohoo -- i have filled out the form and just need to pick up a duplicate sales slip from the store in town where i bought it last year. then i submit it to the PUD folks and should be reimbursed by them since its their fault it fried.

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  5. Anonymous12:37 AM

    Good deal.

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  6. Gorgeous scenery, a wonderful landlord, and a public utility that does right by its customers... do you have a fairy godmother stashed in a backroom??? And if so, is she amenable to doing side-work?

    I'm with you on the no-teevee-but-must-have-intertoobz front. Mind you, I adore my teevee - it brings me Daily Show and Colbert Report and pretty geology specials - but when it goes down, I shrug. When the intertoobz don't work, I freak out. The poor Comcast crew usually gets a call within a few minutes. Hi, my name is Dana, and I'm an intertoobz addict....

    Glad you'll be up and running 100% soon!

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  7. Elliott1:12 PM

    oh man what a drag Suz. They better pay for your tv -- or else!!

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  8. hey dana -- it seemed like an instant fix but in reality, we have been chasing this ghost in the wires off and on for the almost 2 years i've been here. weird stuff -- like brand new coffee makers dying mysteriously and then coming back to life a few months later. am real glad it has been permanently resolved. woohoo.

    i was jonesin' real bad dana. tis a good thing i live alone :) if it had been my laptop that fried instead of the tv, you wudda been able to hear my yelling clearly over several states.

    hey ellie -- i am hopeful they will give me full replacement value -- twas only a year old tv.

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