Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The end of 2008


December 30, 2008

When the snow arrived in huge quantities last week we started having unusual electrical occurances. Our lights would flash bright or fade dim every time the furnace or refrigerator kicked on. I called an electric servicing company and was told that we were experiencing a "brown out" and that the first step to finding the real problem was to call Puget Sound Energy and have them send our someone to check the neutral connection at the to of the mast and the bottom of the meter box. The man instructing me said that it was against regulations for anyone else to deal with these. Unfortunately although I promptly reported the problem, we are a very low priorty compared to thousands of western Washington residents, who were totally without electricity. That was six days ago. PSE still hasn't made it to our house. The original man I spoke to warned me that the worst possible scenario was that a 220 surge could rung throughout the house and burn out every appliance that was just plugged into a regular outlet. I immediately unplugged our computer and everything at the entertainment center.
For now I am working at a desk Daddy B.J. set up for me in his downtown office. Currently our kitchen stove is completely disabled though I didn't unplug it. Our microwave is about half dead and I don't know if either of these failures are due to the strange power situation or not.
Daddy B.J. is heading to two training seminars in Las Vegas. They are scheduled for the first two Mondays in January so he will remain between them to save the extra expense of another flight. I take him to the airport early Saturday morning.
Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and our stake has rented with YMCA between 7:00 PM and midnight. They also have the adjoining municipal swimming pool for a couple of hours and the ice rink across the street for a couple of hours. it should be quite a party. Happy New Year to you!