Fuse Box Olympics

We are having problems here on the homefront. Now that the heat wave is over (thank you Lord!) and our heat rashes are getting better, something else has Come Up. Yesterday I smelled a weird burnt kind of a smell and assumed it was our borrowed portable AC that we had in our bedroom. I have to say, it is a luxury to be cold enough to use the covers at night. I think it's the first time I have used the comforter since May or June. Erin didn't like it, since she was cold and needed to be under the comforter too, but after her feet were thawed out on Daddy's warm back (it was his tummy, but he squealed and turned over...hehehe), she felt better.

Back to the funny smell. We turned off the air conditioner to let it cool off a bit. Today the smell was back and we warily went about our business. This evening, after bathtime, the portable AC quit. I called Chris in to look at it. Uh oh. The living room had quit too. And the kitchen. And the bedrooms, bathroom, etc. Uhhhhhhh.

Chris grabbed a flashlight and we gingerly approached the fusebox. Our house was supposedly built in 1960. It was also wired electrically by someone who was alive before electricity was invented. Nothing in the house is grounded. All the outlets only have two prongs. When the extra room was built onto the house, another more modern fusebox was added to the outside of the house. The add-on, with washer and dryer are on this box, as well as the electric oven and dishwasher, added by us. Oh, and the broken AC, which is working better now that it's 20 degrees cooler outside.

But the refrigerator and room fans were not working. Aaah! So he opened the fuse box and thought that a fuse was blown. After some hunting, my HC got a hold of the owner of the town hardware store and he made a special trip to open his store and provide us with this fuse (a product that Walmart does not carry, nor does anyone else in this country. Except maybe one of those leftover bunkers from WWII. They may still have some of these ancient breakers in there. )So he met Mr. B at the hardware store and brought back two choices. I held the flashlight while he took out the little scary looking black boxy looking thing (notice that I was not the one fiddling with it; I was proud of my light holding abilities). The baby woke up and started screaming. Uh oh. The fuse was messed up, yes, but remember that smell? Something had melted in there. Oh, so that's where the smell came from. Yup. Well, it was going to take more than a fuse. My HC called Mr. B back and they went back to the hardware store, black flat box thingy in hand.

So the burnt cylinder was replaced and the fuses. That's when we discovered that the black box thingy was messed up too and wouldn't go back in its spot. Nobody, even Mr B, carries those black box thingies any more. But he thought he knew of someone who might still have some. He'd call him tomorrow. But if he didn't have any, we'd have to put in a new breaker box. I abandoned my light holding talents for my 'quiet the baby' talents. She was soothed back to sleep and my HC tried and tried and tried to get this broken box back into the slot. Then I had my light bulb (ding!) and reminded him of the things that didn't go off of the broken breaker. We found an extension cord for our refrigerator and ran it to a working outlet (thank you Lord!!!). Ian was happy to go to sleep with his little lantern and a candle, though how he fell asleep with the bright lantern an inch from his eyeballs is beyond me.

Meanwhile, my HC kept trying new ways to get this black box thing to work. He tried Play-Doh, but that smoked and burnt (more bad smells and more crying baby). While I was taking a dark shower (the hot water heater was on the bad breaker....), HC figured it out. Elmer's glue! He also took the guts out of the spare black thingy that was just sitting there but wasn't being used and transferred it to the broken one. I won't confuse everyone by trying to explain it (since I was savoring my Last Hot Shower), but he did it and it worked and now I'm online. We have to keep looking out for any weird smells or smoking, but hopefully that will hold us over until we can either find a replacement or (please Lord) come up with the money to get a new breaker box.

But I think my HC gets a gold medal for his electrical brilliance. An electrician he is not, but he usually gets the job done.