Chuck’s Corner – July, 2007

Last Saturday, my wife turned on the stereo and the UPS (battery backup) that protects the equipment kicked on. It had been doing this for a week or so but what made it different this time was that it didn’t shut off after a couple of seconds. “Now THAT’S odd” I said. I unplugged the UPS from its outlet and plugged it into another one and it immediately shut off. “Hmm, it must have tripped the breaker” I deducted.

Well, as I’m sure you’re aware by now, nothing at our house ever falls into the “simple or obvious solution” category which means that the breaker was fine. Further investigation indicated that the power was also out in the room behind the wall the stereo outlet is on. “Looks like I’ll have to call Jimmy at Allen Electric” I thought.

Now, before I tell you the ending to that story, let me quickly point out something that I’ve learned over the years: Everything happens for a reason. Consider the following…

Our son’s birthday is next week and it’s not just any birthday either – he’ll be 13 and I’m sure you all know what that means. No, I’m not referring to the fact that he’ll be officially a “problem”, I’m referring to the fact that, well, I guess that is what I’m referring to. And my wife isn’t doing anything to help matters.

For example, a few weeks ago my wife told our son that we would buy an electric guitar and amplifier for him as an early birthday present. “What’s wrong with the nice, quiet ACOUSTIC guitar he got for Christmas?” I asked her. “Nothing. But he really enjoys playing” she said. “Nothing good will come of this” I predicted.

Sure enough, the following Saturday I came home from Lowes to find our living room full of kids I’d never seen before. Kids with guitars and drums. “Let me guess…you’ve started a band?” I asked our son rhetorically. “Yeah, Mom said it was OK.”

I found my wife floating in the pool. “Have you completely lost your mind!?!” I asked. “We can’t have them in our living room every week! They’ll clean out the refrigerator and pantry and destroy the house” I added. “Well, they can practice in the garage then” my wife offered helpfully. “It’s too hot in the garage” I said. “Then put an A/C unit in the wall out there” she countered.

“Look, we had enough problems last year with you trying to use the hair dryer while the Christmas lights were running. There isn’t enough power on the garage circuit to run what we’ve got out there now, much less an A/C unit” I stated emphatically.

Which brings us back to the problem with the stereo. As it turns out, Jimmy from Allen Electric found that the outlets in the back room were on the same circuit that runs the garage. Eventually, a poor wiring job resulted in a wire that burned through and that’s what caused the problem. So now I’m going to have to run a new circuit to the garage to relieve the overloading of the old one and while I’m at it I’ll run another one to power the air-conditioning unit.

So, you see? Everything happens for a reason! Turning on the stereo causes an electrical failure which necessitates running additional electrical service to the garage which will allow an A/C unit to be installed in order for our son to set up his “music studio” there which gets him and his friends out of the living room! Of course, all of that results in me having to clean the garage.

I think my wife had it planned like this the whole time.

As usual, you can send comments, questions and suggestions to ChucksCorner@ComCast.net.