One of the traits that my poor BG inherited from her mom is a lack of grace. Like me, she's been running into things and falling down on a regular basis all her life. Door frames. Steps. You name it, we've hit it with some body part of another. The steps to our basement are really old school with the steps to the ATTIC running right over the top of them so as to create a rather small space that can't be navigated unless you duck when you're coming up. One of her friends went to the ER after he busted his noggin wide open running up the steps. That was one of those "way too many kids to be safe" party that I hosted for the unruly teenagers, if you know what I mean. Hey...at least I knew where they were. And so did their momma and them. There are still proclamations of teenage love smeared all over the basement walls with colored chalk.
Since we've been
conserving propane using electric heaters lately I can't remember to unplug the kitchen one before I hit the microwave, which results in total darkness in that part of the house. The other night I found myself in that predicament and headed to the dark basement with a candle to flip the breakers. Hitting the main didn't work, which I discovered only after trekking back up the steps and smacking my head on the spot that's always been there. Duh. I was stunned but determined to get the power back on so there I went again with the candle to flip the switches one by one. Fine then. Back up the steps and *smack* again in the same spot. To say that I cried like a little kid is an understatement. "Mom! Does it hurt THAT bad?" Nah...I just needed to cry, was my reply. heh.
I also have whatever the virus du jour is after two weeks of relatively snot free living. It snowed and is cold, again. And it is Saturday which is a day of rest for me and the dogs. Maybe a little laundry, but other than that it's all about me. And them.
Somebody pass the kleenex please and thank you.
Hi Janie
ReplyDeleteRead this post and thought I'd try to help you make less trips to the circuit breaker box whenever you overload a circuit by using hi-amp drawing appliances at the same time.
All circuit breakers I have experienced have three positions. ON, OFF and TRIPPED. One position is all the way to the left, the other is all the way to the right and the TRIPPED position is in the middle. You should be able to look up and down a row of breaker handles and distinguish the ones that are tripped or thrown out and OFF by an overload. Once you have detected which breaker is tripped due to using two or three appliances at one time, it can easily be marked with a small piece of masking tape or a magic marker. Actually, the best thing you can do is to mark all breakers with information about WHAT each one controls. Normally, there is a sheet of paper glued to the breaker box door on the inside. When the door is open, the layout sheet is visible. The breakers have numbers embossed along side of each location. A corresponding number should be printed on the layout sheet, providing a space to write something in which will at least provide a word or two as a hint as to what it controls. e.g. RANGE or AIR CONDITIONER or FURNACE, etc.
As dangerous as you suggest it is going up or down those stairs to the basement, reducing the number of trips required to get the power back on would be a great relief to your home.
Utilizing BG as a witness to what might go on or off as you trip each breaker, you could end up with all the breakers identified as to what it controls and get them all marked for the future. Believe me, it is worth the time and effort doing. It will save you periods of anger and cussing at some future date.