In Which My House Tries to Burn Down

I had an eventful weekend. It started last Friday, when the family and I went canoeing for the first time. 6 miles or so down a lazy river, with a few little spots of small rapids thrown in for a tad of interest. Swimming in the middle to rest. A fun time was certainly had by all.

Saturday was hot. Very. I don’t like heat, if you know me at all. DKC went down to the Boston Temple for the day, so it was me at home with the kidlets, trying not to melt. TRC played a lot of Leapster, and DC learned how to say “Dragon” (she’s getting much better at trying to imitate sounds these days–hooray!) When DKC got home, we watched My Man Godfrey, a movie I really enjoyed, but which lacked a bit for me when it came to the total package. Three stars.

Sunday, I decided to stop complaining about the heat and do something about it. I obtained a used air conditioner and put it in. Worked like a charm.

Until the smoke started wafting in from another room.

This had happened over the winter with our electric heater, but this time I wanted to find out what the problem was. So I started looking. I found a bat in our barn, and evidence of more mice there (or something larger . . . ) Disturbing, but not a cause for smoke. I found evidence of a lot of water in the basement. Again–disturbing, but no reason for smoke. For the life of me, I couldn’t find the problem. Finally, I was on the phone, just sitting in the room with the smoke and the lights off (with the window open–trying to air out the room), when I saw it: a spark coming from an outlet. I turned down the AC in the other room, then went back. Another spark. I turned OFF the AC. This time, a giant yellow crackling spark shot out.

I turned off that entire breaker. (Which meant my TV, Satellite, sound system, AC, internet, DVD–pretty much anything electronic went out, too.) Turns out the outlet had some issues and was doing its best to melt whenever a serious load of current was on that breaker. I called in the help of a friend, and he showed up this morning and we’ve fixed the problem. (We think–he’s going to show the faulty breaker to an electrician and double check some things.)

In any case, it was certainly more than enough excitement for an evening. I’m just glad I’ve finally solved The Case of the Unexplained Smoke, and done so in a manner that didn’t involve actual flames.

That’s all I have for you for now–enjoy your Monday, and stay cool.