Friday, September 19, 2008

Out, but not down

After 5 long days without power, I am finally back online. But that's not to say I'm out of the woods yet--due to some electrical issue not yet known to me (bad breaker? bad CGFI outlet? bad karma?), the outlets that power my refrigerator, dishwasher, disposal and dryer, as well as several other outlets and light fixtures throughout my home, are still not working.

I have a healthy fear of electricity, so I've done no troubleshooting beyond resetting my circuit breaker and attempting to test the CGFI outlet in my bathroom, neither of which did anything.

BUT, on the bright side, I have my computer, my stove, microwave, toaster oven and coffee maker, my TV, stereo, alarm clock, and at least some lights. I am a happy camper.

Speaking of camping, that's a pretty good analogy for how I and my neighbors have spent the last several days. Making ice runs, heating water for tea over a Sterno container, making dinner on the grill, playing cards and other games by candlelight, listening to battery-powered radios, reading by lantern, going to bed early out of sheer boredom . . . the only thing missing was an excess of bugs and having to sleep on the ground.

Really, aside from the inconvenience of being without power and having to do some extra yardwork (some of us had more to do than others--our friends one street over lost all 3 of their trees, including a 60-foot pine that got uprooted), it hasn't been that bad. So what if I can't do my laundry yet and I still can't restock my fridge? My home is in one piece, my trees are still standing, and I'm back online!

2 comments:

bob.os said...

If you haven't figured this out yet, you may want to look to see if the circuits that are out are on one side (or span both) of your breaker box. It is somewhat common for one of the two hot lines that come into your house to have a problem and for you to have half of your electrical service.

Either way, a call to AEP might be in order.

Amie said...

Thanks for the suggestion . . . we did have an electrician friend come out to assess the situation, and apparently our half-outage is due to the fact that there is one wire still not connected from our house to the pole. I've now made 2 calls to AEP, so now I'm just waiting for a crew to come fix the problem. Hopefully it will happen soon!