This last week we've had some experiences that have been 1) very inconvenient but 2) mostly reminded us how incredibly fortunate we are to have the 1st-World luxuries we seriously take for granted - clean water, electricity and refrigeration. I don't mean this in some false-gratitude type of way, I mean it.
Many times here in Dun Laoghaire, over the last year, they've shut off our water from 8 am to 6 pm, for a week at a time. This is just due to city-works, replacing water mains and pipes. Anyway, not awesome... but we can deal with it. And if I were working full time, this wouldn't even register on the radar - it's just that I'm home most days and need to do things like flush the toilet between 8 am and 6 pm. This happens every so often and we're pretty used to it.
The best part being (sarcasm), when the water comes back on each night, it runs like this for an hour or two (or sometimes 12):
No, that's not beef broth, it's our tap water.
Unfortunately, this last week we also had issues with our electricity - like, I turned on the kitchen light once, it exploded, and then all our lights went out. Hm....that's weird. And for a few days, when we woke up, our clocks had been off and the fridge lights were out. Anyway, just odd-happenings, and in needing to open the breaker box to fix these, we realized the main fuse (and 2 others) in the breaker box were completely melted and charred. Scary.
This is the main fuse that he pulled out of the breaker.
Basically wires were loose causing the near fire, melting the fuses and he also found a faulty circuit in our kitchen. Not comforting when you live on the 3rd floor and have a 2 year old. I nearly went out immediately and bought an escape ladder.
Basically wires were loose causing the near fire, melting the fuses and he also found a faulty circuit in our kitchen. Not comforting when you live on the 3rd floor and have a 2 year old. I nearly went out immediately and bought an escape ladder.
Unfortunately, then, our fridge died. You wouldn't think this is that big 'o deal but, it is. On Saturday we noticed the ice was melting and by Sunday morning we had to throw out every single item in both the fridge and freezer. So hard to do. It just makes you cringe - pouring a full gallon of milk down the drain.
Wayne really didn't like throwing out his Grey Poupon which seemed to have spoiled. I told him it always smells like that. =)
Wayne really didn't like throwing out his Grey Poupon which seemed to have spoiled. I told him it always smells like that. =)
Norah could have this all fixed, lickety-split.
2 comments:
This is terrible - almost like living in Antigua! Jocelyn often has challenges with country wide power shut downs for days at a time. I hope you get everything sorted out and things get better. What a pain! Keep smiling!
I'm sure it's no where near as bad as Antigua (or many, many places on earth). Yeah, we're doing just fine. Surprisingly, there's not much that you absolutely must refrigerate to survive. Basically just milk and then if you can buy food each day for that days' meals, it's completely fine. (or in our case, eating ready made soup for lunch and dinner) Thanks Aunt Janet! =)
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