Sunday afternoon.
It all started yesterday afternoon. A rogue storm came through - it only hit certain portions of this little town and our street was one of them - with high winds and an extremely dense downpour. Amazing when there was only a 15% chance of rain.
It's the winds that did it. A large branch broke off of the tree that keeps plaguing us, fell right on top of the power line stretched between the power pole and our house, knocked it down and burning up everything in the electrical can. Not the panel but the can. It's just a large interface. It was so hot that a person stopped in their car and says to the lady of the house: "Ma'am, your house is on fire". I was in my room when it happened so I didn't know what they were discussing.
What I did know was the power went out but I didn't think it was because of our house! Like several houses lost power because of it. The electricity kept flowing through the weather pipe that sticks up to the point it literally burned a 6 inch long hole through it. It is made out of metal folks, this isn't a plastic piece and the metal is relatively thick.
We called the fire department, one of the battalion chiefs was out there within minutes in his pickup. He checked everything out and declared it safe, the fire was just the electricity burning holes through everything and fortunately it's a brick house. He went inside and checked everything too, he had some sort of high dollar heat gauge to make sure there wasn't fire in the walls - between the drywall and the brick.
Swepco came out a short while later and informed us that they aren't replacing all of that stuff on the house, they are just responsible for the line to the house. Figured. I immediately got on social media looking for an electrician and also AI recommendations, but I remembered one of them was extremely reputable in the area. Nevertheless, I did have a conversation with a man who said he could "come out in the morning and by the looks of the pics, it will cost $1,800".
I mean, I knew this wasn't going to be cheap but that sounded excessive. I called the reputable guy and 2 of them were literally there in 20 minutes. We're talking a Saturday. They said the same thing: can't do this until the morning. They also opened up the panel and said this won't pass code. Why? Because there is no 200 amp circuit breaker to shut off the power to the entire house in case something happens. Yea, that has never set well with me. So, to replace the can that the other guy wanted $1,800 for AND the entire circuit breaker panel and everything else?
$2,000. How much would the first guy have charged for that? 3k? 4? And these people were great. They showed up this morning and they got the entire setup installed by 1:00 pm. We're talking Sunday, people, not a weekday. Awesome in my book. I wasn't exactly happy about forking out that kind of money - I don't own this house - but selfishly, I need electricity on the same as everyone else. But it wasn't all selfishness, I want the best for everyone in this situation. House insurance may cover a portion of it, the lady of the house is going to investigate that.
But, we have 2 upright freezers full of food, we have a couple k worth of food in all of our cold storage appliances. So, when it became apparent that we weren't going to have power for probably 24 hours, I went into action. Tried to get one of the generators to start, it kept starting and then dying. I kept trying until the battery was dead. Generator number 2? It's a pull start and hadn't been fired up in many months either. It took awhile and it choked quite bit for quite a while, but I got it going. I got all 4 fridges/freezers plugged in and that was it.
It was immediately decided we were going to spend the night at a hotel, separate rooms of course, but yes. We got packed, got the animals fed and left for a hotel 5 miles away. This morning got up, got the free breakfast, dropped the 11 year old at church - he graduated from elementary school so now he is going to the student life center which is for his age up through high school. I didn't stay, coming back for the 11:00 am service. We went to Applebee's after church.
Lousy service twice in a row. I told them if this is permanent, I will be taking my business to Chili's. Similar in fare, prices a little higher, but good. The man across the aisle from us ordered a beer. Some 25 minutes later? No beer, he paid and left. THAT kind of service.
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Got busy with all kinda stuff. They got the electric done while I was sitting at Applebee's so I went home and started unplugging cords and turning off the generator and such. That's all done and now doing other stuff such as laundry. And, of course, playing a few games.
