electrical upgrade
Today I had a flashback to elementary school, when the local firefighters came to visit with their mascot "Sparky" the Dalmatian. They taught us things like...don't stick forks in outlets, don't plug everything into one power strip, and don't throw water on a grease fire. Seems like all the basic life skills you learn when you're a hyperactive 9-year old who can't pay attention all that well. I guess they think once you hear it as a child, you'll never forget it! I never knew this, but evidently there's a reason why dalmatians are the official dogs of firefighters - you can read about that at the link below. It's kind of interesting...but this post isn't really about dogs.
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/1454-dalmatians-official-firehouse-dogs.html
It is about the water kettle and the plethora of electrical work here over the past week. I had a break from patient care this afternoon so I thought I'd have some tea. After rummaging through the drawer of tea bags (we have an entire drawer dedicated to tea), I settled on vanilla rooibos and flicked the switch on the kettle. I sat working on notes for a few minutes, then realized that I didn't hear any water boiling. That's about the time I smelled something burning. Nothing actually "caught fire" but the electrical strip was toast. Merkler helped me find another one, but as we plugged it into the converter box (which you need here to run 110V appliances), we realized the converter box was dead too. Unfortunately those converter boxes aren't easy to come by around here. There's no Home Depot down the street. Hard to say what tripped the box and the power strip as we haven't plugged anything new into the outlets. But for now we have no "hot packs" since our hydrocollator is out of commission, and my "high-low" table is stuck in low.
So two contractors have been working on the electrical issues (i.e. - the wiring in the buildings are dangerous). My company commander said our BN commander had to sign some document when they got here last summer saying that we were willing to use the electrical systems despite the danger...the only other option was to turn off the electricity completely. It's taken months to have contractors get here to fix it. I can't tell you why.
The electricians replaced the wiring and lights in my room. I walked in after lunch and asked, "well, did you find anything interesting?" The guy on the ladder responded, "yeah, your room should have caught fire."
"Well, I'm really glad that I won't burn alive on my deployment."
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/1454-dalmatians-official-firehouse-dogs.html
It is about the water kettle and the plethora of electrical work here over the past week. I had a break from patient care this afternoon so I thought I'd have some tea. After rummaging through the drawer of tea bags (we have an entire drawer dedicated to tea), I settled on vanilla rooibos and flicked the switch on the kettle. I sat working on notes for a few minutes, then realized that I didn't hear any water boiling. That's about the time I smelled something burning. Nothing actually "caught fire" but the electrical strip was toast. Merkler helped me find another one, but as we plugged it into the converter box (which you need here to run 110V appliances), we realized the converter box was dead too. Unfortunately those converter boxes aren't easy to come by around here. There's no Home Depot down the street. Hard to say what tripped the box and the power strip as we haven't plugged anything new into the outlets. But for now we have no "hot packs" since our hydrocollator is out of commission, and my "high-low" table is stuck in low.
So two contractors have been working on the electrical issues (i.e. - the wiring in the buildings are dangerous). My company commander said our BN commander had to sign some document when they got here last summer saying that we were willing to use the electrical systems despite the danger...the only other option was to turn off the electricity completely. It's taken months to have contractors get here to fix it. I can't tell you why.
The electricians replaced the wiring and lights in my room. I walked in after lunch and asked, "well, did you find anything interesting?" The guy on the ladder responded, "yeah, your room should have caught fire."
"Well, I'm really glad that I won't burn alive on my deployment."
Oh, Sam... Be careful!
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