Electricity Can Be Fun

Just before Jeremy's soccer game, I noticed that the lights in the house were doing 'unusual' things like dimming, flickering and all sorts of good things. Oh oh.

Tried some other switches and the same thing. Hmmmm.

Went downstairs and no breakers were tripped. Aye carumba.

I decided that I had to stay home and do something (rant, rave, worry, cry, laugh and anything else that made me look like an idiot). I told Jeremy to get out of his soccer uniform. He wasn't too impressed but rolled along.

The boys were getting anxious, so Bev took them outside. I called Tina to let her know what was going on. She was busy with her works Annual General Meeting. She called Pam & Chris to see if Chris (an electrician by training) could figure out the problem.

Tina came home and shortly after, Chris and Pam showed up. Chris checked the panel and discovered that one of the two phases into our house was dead. That explains why the lights were flickering. I thanked Chris and Pam for stopping by and immediately called the after hours line at Enwin Utilities.

About 30 or so minutes later, Enwin appeared. He took off the meter and told me the good news - the problem was with their line. His plan was to connect a temporary cable between the meter on my house and the meter on the house next door. A few minutes later another Enwin employee stopped by with the cable. It wasn't a complicated procedure and would take all of five minutes to complete.

Well, five minutes took three hours. Seems the neighbour next door wasn't buying any of it. Her husband was not home and there was a language barrier. The Enwin employee identified himself and even had the lady call dispatch. No go. Time to get the on-call supervisor out here.

About 30 or so minutes later, Val comes by and speaks with the neighbour. The answer remained a resounding "NO" and this time she called the police. Fun.

The Enwin employees and supervisor thought of alternatives. About two hours, I told the supervisor, I could wait until the morning for a new cable to be installed - I had partial power to the house (including the fridge) and it wasn't hot or humid (it got cold and windy). The supervisor thanked me for my patience and left.

As the other two Enwin guys were about to leave, the police showed up. They chatted and the police relayed the neighbours concerns to us. In the name of neighbourhood peace, I said I had no problem with waiting till the next day for a fix. So the police talked to the neighbour again and this time she capitulated.

Enwin guys looked at me and I said "I'm not going to turn down full power". So they got the equipment about 10 minutes later were done and we had full power.

My thanks for the Val and the afternoon emergency guys for their patience.

Now I just have to wait for the yard to be dug up. Exciting times.

Posted by Adam

P.S. A huge "THANK YOU" to Tina. You are awesome.