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February 26, 2005
I'm Running Late
It's getting late and I haven't yet written my blog for the day. I'd hate to kill my month long streak.
Today was good. I didn't go to work. Which means I slept well past 5:15 am. That's about an hour before the sun comes up for those of you that don't think the time exists. I'm not the biggest fan of waking up and seeing the moon.
My main accomplishments for today were fixing two fans in the house and filling another drum-sized trash bag with stuff from my not all that big closet.
The fans were a pretty easy fix after a quick trip to the home improvement store. Both my fan and my sisters had the same piece break within a month of each other. Since I don't ever go in her room and she hasn't been too bothered by it, I didn't get around to fixing until mine broke. I fixed both without electrocuting myself. I didn't do that until I starting looking into to putting an outlet in my closet.
I took out an outlet in my room to see if I could figure out where the wires went. I reminded myself not to touch the side of the outlet because I knew it would be hot. While fighting to shove all the wires back in, however, I got a nice little jolt of 110 volts after touching the screws on the side. That always makes my elbow tingle for a several hours (yes, it's nowhere near the first time that's happened). I imagine it's probably not to good for you.
I'm doing my best to get most everything out of the closet so when I find some wood..more likely when I buy some wood, I'll be ready to install it. I think I got about as far today as I'll be able to. Now I just need $60-70 in wood, a miter saw, a table saw, and a sander. Maybe a compressor and a brad nailer.
Gotta go to bed so I can play with the fishy's in the morning...
Posted by mhader at February 26, 2005 11:49 PM
Comments
You are one of the reasons the Navy has a tagout system. So you turn the power off before you work on something that can kill you! Be CAREFUL and flip the breaker next time. Have fun with the fishys!!
Posted by: dad at February 27, 2005 7:54 AM
My grandfather was hit in the arm by lightining while cleaning his gutters (the storm hadn't even started yet when he was struck) but fortunately I guess it was a wooden ladder so he wasn't grounded, and he lived without any major injury. He said it just made his arm ache for a few days.
I took his experience as a lesson from God that gutters don't need cleaning. Your dad'd idea of turning off the breaker for that outlet is probably a good lesson to learn from your experience, but knowing that won't happen, I'll just suggest that you stand on a wooden ladder next time. ;)
Posted by: Ben Roller at February 27, 2005 2:08 PM
First step, find a flashlight. Better yet, get an extension cord and a worklight and plug them in down the hall. Second step, FLIP the breaker before you work so that you don't TRIP the breaker when YOU become the short circuit. Third step, go back over the circuit breaker labels (that you spent ten minutes trying to read) with a Sharpie , because if it's like most breaker boxes, the electrician wrote them in in pencil about twenty years ago.
If you need to borrow a compressor, though. I have one still in the box that really needs to get used one of these days.
Posted by: Jonathan at February 27, 2005 2:30 PM
I wish our electrician had written them only 20 years ago! Our house was built in 1957, and I know this because the original labels for the fuses (no breakers except for the push one that was added for the dryer in the basement) are written in pencil on what looks like some sort of parchment paper now. :)
Fortunately in the almost 4 years we've lived here, the dryer has popped out the breaker only twice (just push it back in and come back in 18 months) and we've never needed to do any electrical work, so I haven't needed to decode the scribbles. If that need ever arises I think I'll just throw that big Dr. Frankenstein looking switch and power the whole station down.
Posted by: Ben Roller at February 27, 2005 4:04 PM
Flip the breaker AND get a circuit tester. The only thing worse than accidently zapping yourself on an outlet your being careful with, is just grabbing the thing because you think you flipped it...or so I've heard.
Posted by: Jeremy at February 27, 2005 7:33 PM