The Time I Thought My House Was Going to Burn Down.

*warning: long post ahead…

I’ve been MIA, but I have a good reason.

Ready for a story?

It was Sunday morning.  I’m sipping my cup of joe while reading some of my bloggy favorites.  As I peruse other sites I check the time.  630am, time to get some work in.  I work until the radicals get up and that’s my cue to start breakfast.  *side note: I’m constantly multi-tasking throughout the day so I leave my programs up and running thinking that I’ll get to squeeze in some work (or maybe play).

I’m using the microwave to heat up radical #1’s breakfast and POP!  “what the hell was that?” I sort of screamed.  “oh crap, the outlet is smoking!” I screamed to the mister.  I’m in a full force panic by now because there’s smoke and a weird buzzing sound. 

“sh*t! why is the stereo smoking?” the mister says to me to which I responded “beats the sh*t outta me!?!”  did I mention that the stereo is plugged into a different wall?   “get it! get it!” still screaming at the mister.  “get what?  calm down!” the mister says.  “what is that sound?” the mister asks me.  “what sound?” I reply.  The mister runs to the living room and the ceiling fans are going like 100 mph.  okay, maybe not 100 mph but it was going faster than I’ve ever seen it go.  I’m still panicking which got the mister panicking and he runs downstairs to turn off the main switch to the power. 

I will admit that when I panic, all my common sense is lost.  I’m so thankful the mister was home because god knows that I would have never thought of turning off the main switch if I was home by myself.  The mister tells me he’s going to call tony (the half-butt electrician) and I tell him “NO, you are going to call a real electrician!” to which he replied “hello?!?  It’s Sunday, electricians don’t work on Sunday!”  If you can recall my electrician post a few weeks back, I started in on the mister with how this wouldn’t have happened if we called an electrician in the first place to check everything out thoroughly and this wouldn’t have happened if he just listened to me and I went on and on and on.  I win. 

The mister calls a real electrician and explains to him what just went down.  The electrician says “oh crap you lost your neutral.  Turn off the main switch and I’ll be right there.” Although it was Sunday and we called him in the middle of football, he came.  He came because what just happened is not good and it can’t wait until the next day.  God bless his heart. 

I was so overwhelmed with happiness and thankfulness and I told the mister I feel like we should bake him some cookies or something.  Oh wait.  We have no electric.  Scratch that idea jenn and think of something else.

 As we’re waiting for marty (the electrician) to come I think about my computer.  I know, how selfish of me to think about a computer when our house could have burned down but just stay with me.  I was hoping that it didn’t go kaput on me because I was in the middle of work and didn’t save anything.  I put it to the back of my brain and told myself to deal with it later. 

Marty finally comes and the poor guy was here all day.  I could hear him mumble to himself stuff like “your electrical wiring is weird”, “I’m getting weird numbers”, “I don’t understand why it’s doing that”, “all this stuff is old”, or “this is just weird!”  I watched him run around the upstairs, under the house, and on the roof.  He said something about our electrical panel being old and corroded and it needed to be replaced. At the end of the day he decided to call helco so they can come and check out their lines.  Mr. helco comes, checks it out, brings out his chainsaw and goes at it with our avocado tree.  Mr. helco was thinking that maybe the growth over the lines from the tree contributed to the madness.  Poor tree. 

Marty and mr. helco are talking electrical talk which is gibberish to me but they do a temporary fix.  Hooray, we can take a shower!  I check my computer and I get nothing.  The darn thing won’t turn on.  Awesome.

So after 1200 plus buckaroos, a fried computer, tv, and phone I am slowly getting my house back together.  Hopefully the insurance will cover some of it.  I finally broke down and bought a new phone yesterday and I also got my computer back.  The parentals feel bad that the radicals have no tv so they are bringing one for them this weekend.  I have to say I got a lot of other stuff done that has been calling my name forever.  And the radicals have been functioning very well without a tv.  I can’t say the same for the mister though.  As for me, I’m glad to have my computer back and it got me thinking to invest in a laptop.  I need one after hearing my mom’s heart jump out of her body and plop on the floor when I told her my computer was dead.  She was thankful that we were all okay but I got her stressing out with half a week lost of no work.  Don’t worry mom, work will be done and all will be well. 

Even though I shouldn’t be, I’m still paranoid.  It’ll take a while for the paranoia to go away.  I find myself going around the house checking outlets and sniffing around for smoke.  I unplug everything that is not being used.  I jump at every sound that sounds like a pop!  I’m afraid to vacuum and I still refuse to use the microwave.  That thing has forever traumatized me.

Happy Hump Day Thursday!  Haha.  I think the power outage has fried my brain too…

jenn

Prankster.

I mentioned the prank caller yesterday and said I would be back to post about it tomorrow which is today.  So here it goes…

I woke up to my phone ringing at 530am.  Panic sets in if my phone rings in the wee hours of the morning or late at night.  Weird, I know.  So I jump out of bed in a panic, run to the phone, and answer.  The caller is whispering something that I couldn’t understand let alone hear.  At one point I thought I heard them say to hang up the phone or to put down the phone.  So I say in the loudest voice possible (at 530am, haha) “you need to speak louder because I can’t hear you!” 

The mister comes out asks me what was going on and yelling at me to hang up the phone all while I’m trying to stretch my ear drum to hear this person.  The grumpy mister tells me to hang up and he goes back to bed.  Less than a minute later the person calls back and they are still whispering.  I say to the person “if you’re not going to speak louder, then stop calling because I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”  click. 

The phone immediately starts ringing.  It’s the same whispering person and this time I swear they were saying to hang up the phone to which I replied “WELL I WOULD HANG UP BUT YOU KEEP CALLING!”  click.  Phone rings again and this time I keep it on speaker hoping that they would start talking instead of whispering.  Nothing.  So I go about my business while the phone is still on and then I start to freak myself out. 

 See, I think I watch too much law & order, csi, and criminal minds because I thought that maybe they were tapping my phone, tracking me down, and coming to kill or kidnap me.  And then I got even more freaked out because it was still dark and the mister had to work that day and I didn’t want to be alone just in case something were to happen.  A little dramatic, I know but it could happen.  So I hang up the phone and this person called back three more times! 

The mister finally had enough, asked me why in the world am I wasting my time with this person at 530 in the morning, and unplugged the phone.  I told him about my paranoia and how I was sad that he had to go to work.  He gave me the ‘you watch too much crime shows’ look and asked if I wanted him to tell the guys he couldn’t come to work today because I’m paranoid.  Haha.  No honey, you go on your merry way and I’ll do my best to fend off any crazy people. 

So that was my morning full of weird phone calls.  In the past I’ve had calls during the day but at 530am?  Weird.  I didn’t think people would get their thrills that way early in the morning.  Or it could have been someone tapping my phone or possibly I got caught in the middle of a super secret mission going down over the phone and that’s why they were telling me to hang up the phone!  Yeah jenn, I’m sure that last one was what it was…I hope y’all had a beautiful day!  

jenn