The Blowout

 The general confusion at my house, what with garden roof workers and front patio roof workers and washing machine installers and various assistants and their children and Louis running here and there issuing orders, became more confusing yet when the electricity suddenly died and could not be restored. 

The electricity in my house has always been iffy. One cannot use too many devices at once. For example, one cannot use the air conditioning and also take a shower, for the strain proves too great and the breaker switch flips off. In the case of yesterday, the maid was doing laundry in the machine, I was using my electric fan, the workers were using their power tools, and then when the maid turned on the rice cooker, the electricity blew. Or so it seemed at the time. 

The problem was that flipping the breakers back on resulted in no result at all. Still dead. Frantic calls were made to the power company, who said that they could come tomorrow, until Louis screamed at them and they changed their minds in favor of now. 

For a time, the loss of the electricity was a mystery to the electrician, as the usual measures did not restore it. It was decided that there must be a sort somewhere in the wiring. 

Climbing into the crawlspace above the ceiling, the electrician found that the wires, which in a normal house should be reachable through the crawlspace (that's kind of what crawlspaces are for), could not be reached, as the original builder, responsible already for a great multitude of fuck-ups, had committed yet another in hiding the wires beyond access. 

This resulted in the need to take a hammer and pound a hole in the ceiling. 

After some experimentation, the cause of the entire kerfuffle was finally found to have been a nail that had gone through one of the cables. 

Now, where had this nail come from? Hmm. 

Well, of course the nail had come from the men working outside on the front patio canopy. The only mystery remaining is why we did not think of this from the beginning. It's only logical, right? These things happen when you're pounding nails into a house. 

In any case, the problem is finally solved--almost. The electrician must return today and make the new connections secure and permanent. and, I assume, close up the hole in the ceiling. He will also increase the electricity allotment to the house, as it is found as well that the original builder installed less than Louis had asked for (therefore saving funds for himself). 

Louis is talking now about yet another project: digging up the driveway, resurfacing it, constructing a garden, and who knows what-all. Perhaps we can put a nail through the septic tank this time.