Well, the good news is that we didn't lose all our electric power in this week's storms and for that we feel very blessed. The bad news is that we haven't had power in about half of our house for a week now thanks to some faulty breakers/wiring. Last Friday, Glenda couldn't use her hair dryer in the bedroom. We would turn on a light switch and the lights would turn off!?! Something was definitely amiss but didn't seem to be that big of a deal - that is, until Friday night around 9:00 PM. I had just gotten the kids to bed and had settled down to watch The McLaughlin Group on PBS. (Glenda was at a girls' night out get-together - if she were home I would not have subjected her to one of the political screamfests that she hates). Anyway, about 10 minutes into the program, I noticed the unmistakable smell of electric wires trying to catch on fire. I went to the laundry room where our electric box is, and the smell was very strong. I called Glenda, (who was already on her way home) and told her I was going to get the kids up. She took one whiff of the basement and called the fire department dispatcher.
I tell you what - the Westerville Fire Department doesn't play games. Within minutes, we had six fire trucks on our street, dispatched from Firehouses 111, 112, and 113. We wrapped the kids (still sleepy) in coats and headed outside. Our neighbor Marvin invited us over to his house to get out of the cold. The second he stepped out of his house he said "Smells like an elecrical fire". We know which 2 breakers were affected, but the firefighters couldn't definitively pinpoint the exact source of the problem. They said as long as we keep those breakers off, we would be safe until we could get an electrician out the next day. The "electric fire smell" did dissipate, but we have been left with a house with no power in any of the bedrooms, no TV/DVR in the living room, etc. You won't find me complaining, though - we still have heat, the kitchen is fine, and the garage door still works. That's more than a lot of people can say after this week's ice storms.
With all the ice and power outages around town, it's been hard for the electricians to track down our problem. We had them out briefly on Monday, but the problem wasn't resolved. The plan, of course, was to have them come back on Tuesday to follow up. Mother Nature had other plans. Like everbody else, our driveway and street turned into a giant ice rink:
Needless to say, school and the electricians were canceled Tuesday and Wednesday. It took me about an hour to get to Tuttle Tuesday morning and curiously, I ended up doing 10 eye exams that day, more than I expected.
The most important thing about Tuesday, though, is that it was Glenda's birthday! It definitely didn't turn out as she expected - we had plans for a karaoke/lasagna birthday party at our house that had to be scrapped. We were obviously disappointed that the family couldn't come over, but the day wasn't a total loss - Glenda did get breakfast in bed and some quality time with the kiddos.
I got my own time with Joseph and Anthony on Wednesday and we made the most of it. Our morning was filled with playing "Cootie", wrestling (I still have a couple of aches and pains from that), and burying old Dad with blankets and stuffed animals:
The afternoon found Joseph making a 17 page book about learning to fly, Tony coloring and all of us checking out videos and games on the PBS kids website. Glenda's annual bureau meeting was canceled Wednesday night, so she ended up in on the fun, too. She staged her own mini-karaoke party - the highlight was Glenda and Joseph singing "Crocodile Rock".
Glenda's parents are coming in Friday night to watch the kids while Glenda and I celebrate her birthday at the Ocean Club at Easton. Saturday afternoon brings the Wendy's Chili Open at the Zoo and Sunday is Maria's birthday party. With the Big Thaw already underway and dry weather expected, it should be another terrific weekend!
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