Power Problems and tedium: boring post #2

[drscott]

The fun never ends.

Finished the accounting and the corporate returns -- fewer than usual hangups and discrepancies. Did my personal tax returns today. Tried to electronically file, but wasn't allowed to file the CA return because one form has not been specified by the state yet --- argh. At least I don't get a big refund from the state so a delay doesn't matter much, but it means I am denied the pleasure of completion and the piles of papers must remain out until I am done.

For Federal e-filing, you have to check back 24-48 hours later to see if your return was accepted. So no e-gratification there, either.

Meanwhile, Mike lost power in part of his office mysteriously. No breakers blown, so I check the wall boxes -- nothing looks odd and the power to the terminals is 117 V AC. I had not needed to turn the lights on in my office until it got dark, but when I did the power went off in the whole circuit. Extremely mysterious -- you can run some things but not others. Looking for an electrician, discovered the Lavender Pages seem to have disappeared. Guess it's some Yellow Pages person unless somebody has a better idea.

Comments

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I know a wonderful electrician but he's in Palm Springs and probably doesn't make house calls unless you want to fly him up here. He's so stunningly handsome that you probably wouldn't fly him home, however.

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[handlebear.livejournal.com]

If you fine one let us know.

Re:

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Send me his contact info, I'll take the wiring down to see him. ;-)

Re:

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I have pictures somewhere. A friend took some stealth pictures. The electrician's got a thing for redheads. Of course, I was invisible to him, but I'm a good yenta.

[goldibehr.livejournal.com]

If your office light is on the same circuit breaker as mike's office, it may be that the circuit breaker itself has gone bad. It can happen, and a breaker is pretty easy to replace.

If you're comfortable removing the breaker from the box, you can get a new one from Homo Depot for $15-20. Bring along the old one to compare.

Re:

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion -- I thought it was looking like that might be it, but then I found an obvious burned-insulation problem in one of the electrical boxes on the circuit - charcoaled wire nut and all. So I fixed that and it seems to have fixed the problem. I'm wondering if adding too many compact flourescents to the fixtures brought out a latent bad connection by hugely increasing the startup load. Anyway, mystery solved.