Murphy, you bastard!
Dear Goddess, it's been a long week.
It all started last Saturday, when Telca woke me up at nine in the morning with the greeting "the house is broken". Not a very good way to wake up, (and an even worse way to spend the next five days). Turned out that our house was only receiving half power. So we called Hydro-Ottawa, who basically told us that it wasn't their problem and that we were on our own. (Translation: we don't care, so fuck you)
So Telca and I went on the Electrical Safety Association webpage and found a list of electricians that were in our area, and that were fully legal and all that jazz. We spent the next hour going down the list, calling everyone we could get and leaving a slew of messages.
Lucky for us (and we'd find out later in the week that our luck was severely lacking), one electrician actually called us back, and he was even in the neighbourhood! So we begged him to come look at the electrical panel and see if he could figure out why only one floor of the house had power. Turned out, that it was Hydro's fault! Ha!
He called Hydro, told them that it was their problem, and to get their asses over to our house and fix it. About two hours later, a Hydro truck came and we had people stomping through the house to check the box (again). Then we were told that it was a cable outside, under the ground, that was damaged. Could they fix it right away? No. (silly us for asking) Could they do anything helpful. Kinda.
So they put a 'jumper' on the line, which gave us enough power in the house to run the fridge and freezer and one tv. No stove, no washing machine, dryer, furnace, or anything of any actual use.
When did they think it could be fixed? Sometime during the week. Whoopie-fuckin-do. Could ya be more vague?
I, myself, was told to shut up and stop asking questions by one of the Hydro guys. Good thing that we needed Hydro's help within the next week, because I was tempted to tell him exactly where to go and what he could do when he got there.
Anyway, so we had a jumper. Big fat lot of help it was. We had to turn off the fridge, and all the lights before we could use the microwave. And if the fridge, freezer and tv were on, no lights worked.
On Sunday, Hydro came and dug up half of our front yard, because, of course, the break in the line was right under the front stairs. Naturally. Where else could it be?!
On Monday, they told Telca that they had everything ready and booked for the 25th of April. You can guess how well that went over with her.
Monday evening, Telca dragged a passing electrician into the house, told him the brief and non-swearing version of our recent trip to Hydro-hell, and he, in all his wonderful glory, said that our situation was unacceptable, and that with all the grief Hydro gave to everyone that needed power, that he was surprised no one had ever gone and slit their throats.
Obviously, we had our man.
On Tuesday, Hydro came and dug a hole in our front yard. A big hole. A five foot deep hole.
During the time between Monday evening and Wednesday, Hydro informed us that there was a $600 fee for digging the hole in the front yard. *twitch* And not only that, but that everything that Hydro had told us up until that point wasn't going to happen. See, we were told that all that needed to be done was to fix the break in the line. What they really planned on doing was forcing us to move the meter outside, which could only be done by an electrician. And, at the same time, that we had to change a lot of the wiring because of the meter move. So, we had to change the main box from fuses to breakers. Good-bye large chunk of money.
We cursed Murphy and his bedamed Law. We walked around the house whimpering and repeating 'the house is broken', a lot. There were also many new inventions of useful sentences that held the word 'fuck' and 'fuck'.
And we spent a lot of time wishing that we could do laundry. We were on our last pairs of underwear. Things were getting serious.
On Wednesday, the house was crazy. The power was shut off completely, from nine-thirty am until around two-pm. The new box was installed, wiring moved, the meter moved, more of the front yard vanished within the hole, and we received a big ugly Hydro meter right outside our door. Right where the mailbox was. Want to know where the mailbox is now? In the garbage.
On top of all that, on top of it, Hydro couldn't fix the line. Seems it was broken in another place too. So we spent another night with half power, reading books by light of two dozen candles and eating whatever we could find that didn't need to be cooked. Mainly chocolate and oatmeal cookies on my part.
Today, the fools came, dug a second hole (luckily not on our front lawn) and fixed the bloody wire. So now, finally, after so long, we have full power! I'm finally able to get online! Our front lawn, however, will never be the same. There is no grass, only a pile of dirt from a badly filled hole. They killed my peony. And now we have an ugly Hydro meter next to the front door, in plain sight. Blergh.
And, tomorrow, I leave for my folks place for a week or two. Luckily I did my laundry this afternoon, as soon as the power came back on. I never thought I'd be thrilled to be able to do laundry.
It all started last Saturday, when Telca woke me up at nine in the morning with the greeting "the house is broken". Not a very good way to wake up, (and an even worse way to spend the next five days). Turned out that our house was only receiving half power. So we called Hydro-Ottawa, who basically told us that it wasn't their problem and that we were on our own. (Translation: we don't care, so fuck you)
So Telca and I went on the Electrical Safety Association webpage and found a list of electricians that were in our area, and that were fully legal and all that jazz. We spent the next hour going down the list, calling everyone we could get and leaving a slew of messages.
Lucky for us (and we'd find out later in the week that our luck was severely lacking), one electrician actually called us back, and he was even in the neighbourhood! So we begged him to come look at the electrical panel and see if he could figure out why only one floor of the house had power. Turned out, that it was Hydro's fault! Ha!
He called Hydro, told them that it was their problem, and to get their asses over to our house and fix it. About two hours later, a Hydro truck came and we had people stomping through the house to check the box (again). Then we were told that it was a cable outside, under the ground, that was damaged. Could they fix it right away? No. (silly us for asking) Could they do anything helpful. Kinda.
So they put a 'jumper' on the line, which gave us enough power in the house to run the fridge and freezer and one tv. No stove, no washing machine, dryer, furnace, or anything of any actual use.
When did they think it could be fixed? Sometime during the week. Whoopie-fuckin-do. Could ya be more vague?
I, myself, was told to shut up and stop asking questions by one of the Hydro guys. Good thing that we needed Hydro's help within the next week, because I was tempted to tell him exactly where to go and what he could do when he got there.
Anyway, so we had a jumper. Big fat lot of help it was. We had to turn off the fridge, and all the lights before we could use the microwave. And if the fridge, freezer and tv were on, no lights worked.
On Sunday, Hydro came and dug up half of our front yard, because, of course, the break in the line was right under the front stairs. Naturally. Where else could it be?!
On Monday, they told Telca that they had everything ready and booked for the 25th of April. You can guess how well that went over with her.
Monday evening, Telca dragged a passing electrician into the house, told him the brief and non-swearing version of our recent trip to Hydro-hell, and he, in all his wonderful glory, said that our situation was unacceptable, and that with all the grief Hydro gave to everyone that needed power, that he was surprised no one had ever gone and slit their throats.
Obviously, we had our man.
On Tuesday, Hydro came and dug a hole in our front yard. A big hole. A five foot deep hole.
During the time between Monday evening and Wednesday, Hydro informed us that there was a $600 fee for digging the hole in the front yard. *twitch* And not only that, but that everything that Hydro had told us up until that point wasn't going to happen. See, we were told that all that needed to be done was to fix the break in the line. What they really planned on doing was forcing us to move the meter outside, which could only be done by an electrician. And, at the same time, that we had to change a lot of the wiring because of the meter move. So, we had to change the main box from fuses to breakers. Good-bye large chunk of money.
We cursed Murphy and his bedamed Law. We walked around the house whimpering and repeating 'the house is broken', a lot. There were also many new inventions of useful sentences that held the word 'fuck' and 'fuck'.
And we spent a lot of time wishing that we could do laundry. We were on our last pairs of underwear. Things were getting serious.
On Wednesday, the house was crazy. The power was shut off completely, from nine-thirty am until around two-pm. The new box was installed, wiring moved, the meter moved, more of the front yard vanished within the hole, and we received a big ugly Hydro meter right outside our door. Right where the mailbox was. Want to know where the mailbox is now? In the garbage.
On top of all that, on top of it, Hydro couldn't fix the line. Seems it was broken in another place too. So we spent another night with half power, reading books by light of two dozen candles and eating whatever we could find that didn't need to be cooked. Mainly chocolate and oatmeal cookies on my part.
Today, the fools came, dug a second hole (luckily not on our front lawn) and fixed the bloody wire. So now, finally, after so long, we have full power! I'm finally able to get online! Our front lawn, however, will never be the same. There is no grass, only a pile of dirt from a badly filled hole. They killed my peony. And now we have an ugly Hydro meter next to the front door, in plain sight. Blergh.
And, tomorrow, I leave for my folks place for a week or two. Luckily I did my laundry this afternoon, as soon as the power came back on. I never thought I'd be thrilled to be able to do laundry.