With winter storms have come some issues... some storm related,
some not... but all requiring effort to correct...
The first was an electrical problem (more correctly,
electrical problems)... we were blowing a breaker... I reset the breaker, and the lights worked...
then the breaker tripped again and the lights didn't work again... I assumed it was the Christmas lights since
the problem's appearance coincided with me putting up outdoor lights... I checked extension cords, cleaned
connections, wrapped things in plastic bags... reset the breaker and all was
good... until the breaker tripped again... I moved the Christmas lights to
another circuit... and reset the breaker and once again all was good... until
it wasn't and the breaker kept tripping (not the one with the Christmas lights).
I replaced the breaker... added a new circuit with a GFI
outlet for the Christmas lights... and
all was good... until it wasn't again...
Since the Christmas lights were working I was looking elsewhere for the
solution... and finally found a outdoor light fixture which had been hit by a
limb... and was apparently intermittently shorting... and tripping the
breaker... 10 minutes later I fixed the light fixture and again all was good...
Until it wasn't...
(but you probably expected this...)
It wasn't good when THE storm hit on Thursday... at the height of the storm the lights would
flicker... and go out and come back on... again, and again... mostly the whole house... but at the height
of the storm we noticed the lights were out except in the refrigerator... We were pretty sure the refrigerator didn't
have a battery backup... but the lights came back on and we blamed the storm
and hoped all was good... but I did
build a fire, just in case...
The storm was over... all was good... Until it wasn't... (but you probably expected this...)
Saturday night I got a call while at the farm... half the
lights were out at home... So it wasn't
good. But our breakers were not tripped
(we checked...) so the problem was
beyond our house... Steph called me.. we talked about it... she (the we in the
above) checked the breakers... She called PG&E (aka Pacific Gas &
Electric, the folks who brought you the San Bruno gas explosion and fire... ) They asked questions... Have you checked your
breakers (yes...) Is the whole house blacked out (no...) They said they would
be there... they asked for a call back number... Steph gave them Tina's... they
read back Steph's (they are one number apart) She corrected them... That trick
didn't work... (but more on that later)
They said they would be out that evening... (now night... we could tell
because it was dark outside) The issued
us a trouble ticket number...
We were pretty sure that one leg of the 220 volt power to
our house was out... We are smart enough
and know enough to understand basic electricity... the folks from PG&E on
the other end of the telephone line did not accept our explanation but promised
to respond...
I got home accompanied by house guests, Andrew and Liza... (They
have both appeared in the blog before, most recently in the Oct 2014 report on
the desert
camping trip... ) and on arrival I
found that as reported, most of the lights were out... I built up the fire... we talked... there may
have been wine... ( I recommend wine as a coping strategy if you
might have to deal with PG&E... it doesn't make the lights come on sooner,
but it makes you feel better about it) Tina
discovered a voice mail... apparently from PG&E, suggesting that our lights
(and electricity) were now working... (they were not...) Messages were exchanged with Steph...
PG&E had called her first... she had said she was not at home, she did not
know, and they were not calling the right number... Apparently based on that
conversation they closed the trouble report and canceled the service call...
Tina called PG&E back at the number provided in the
voice mail... and only talked to machines... she called the main "trouble
line" only to be told there was no service call on record for our
house... and the earliest service call available was tomorrow... she talked to
a human... eventually... After a discussion
(only occasionally heated) they said they would be out
"tonight" (by now it was near 10:00 pm) They issued a new trouble ticket number...
It was not getting late... at least the (wood) fire was
working... we issued flashlights to our guests... Their bedroom lights were among the working...
their bathroom lights were among the non working lights... Then, near 11:00 the
lights came on... I walked about outside... looking for a PG&E truck...
there were no PG&E trucks nearby...
I called PG&E to tell them the lights were now on, and was told
there were no outages reported at our address... And at that moment there was no outage at
our address... there was just a bit of uncertainty as to how we no longer had
an outage... but at least the lights
worked.
The lights continued to work on Sunday... and were still
working on Monday when the pipes under the sink sprung a leak... so Steph and I
(and the dogs) headed over to Home Depot for pipes and washers and such... We didn't get everything we (I) wanted... there
are three kinds of 1 1/2" plumbing washers used in drain pipes... they had
one type but not the other two... I thought I could make due... (we also bought an extra string of lights for
the Christmas tree... for we believed we now had electricity to power
lights) Upon arriving home we discovered
a large PG&E truck parked in our driveway...
We spoke to the PG&E guy... he said he was responding to
the service call (this would be one of the two service calls placed on
Saturday, for both of which PG&E said they would respond "that
night", in this case "that night being Saturday (night) this now
being Monday morning... both of which we had been told were now closed ) He said the power was on... We had called on
Saturday night to say the power was on... they told us there were no service
calls on record for our address... but they appearntly got that wrong too...
We talked about the issues... He said they didn't tell him
the lights were flickering... and that information changed things... he said
they didn't tell him that it was a partial failure... and that information
changed things... We walked around the
side yard to look at the electrical service... he said the drops had the wrong
splices... he noted the insulator on the telephone pole had pulled out... He
replaced the splices and suggested that someone would eventually fix the
insulator on the telephone pole... (the
guy in the big PG&E truck was not the bad guy... Once he understood the
issue he fixed it quickly... but he too
was working without information needed to fix issues... )
We noted that the service response was promised for Saturday
night, but only arrived on Monday morning... so they are not just
uncommunicative, but also slow to respond.
I fixed the drain pipes under the sink... but only after a
second trip to a different hardware store that had the pipe washers the first
did not...
So, after a couple of days... multiple phone calls...
several trips to the hardware store... and several false starts we have lights
and water... At least for now
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