Special Saturday

I spent a lot of time during the night reading, so I woke up at an amazing time of 10:00 AM on Saturday. I made four cups of coffee and then posted the Blog entry. The doorbell rang, so I jumped into my clothes (I was wearing my ripped up robe, you see). My neighbor and another guy were just walking back to his house when I went out on the porch and called to them.

They were just here to check out what my problem was and then headed out to another job site. I showed him what I had and also asked for a quote to replace my 100 amp service box with a new one (push that, Push-o-matic!) They’ll be back in the afternoon sometime.

I made up a short shopping list for Westborn and then shaved and showered. I hurried there and got back as fast as I could. I don’t want to miss them!

They showed up around 1:00 PM and got started. They traced and checked and checked and traced. They were in and out of the garage a hundred times and even up in the attic. At one point, every affected plug had its cover off, the little pantry was open and the stove and the dishwasher were both pulled out!

They ended up removing the old plug that the dishwasher used to connect to (I put the dishwasher on another circuit, if you remember). It was hooked directly to the GFCI, but is unused now. The electrician rewired the GFCI, using wire nuts I supplied to connect like wires and ended up with only two wires going to the GFCI (instead of the six that were there before). Clean!

They hit the main breaker and, I’ll be damned, everything worked!

They spent another half hour putting everything back together and were finished about 5:30 PM. I asked how much I owed him and he said, “Forty bucks!” I said, “Bullsh*t! You’ve been here like four hours!” He said, “Well, that’s my “neighbor” rate.” Now, like the tree guy, I want this guy available when I need him and I want a deal on the replacement fuse box, so I gave him $60.00. He handed $20 to Rick and pocketed the rest. And they left.

I walked around, resetting digital clocks, restarting the computer and the cable box. The cable box didn’t want to come back, so I ended up rebooting the whole thing. But, I got it! In retrospect, I should have shut everything off before they came, but I didn't think of it.

It was getting late and I hadn’t eaten anything all day. I want to use the oven!!! So, I threw together a quick meatloaf (2 pounds of hamburger, breadcrumbs, seasoning, some shredded mild cheddar cheese, herbs and seasoning). I formed that into a loaf and placed it on a half sheet pan. Also on the pan were two big, beautiful Idaho baking potatoes I got this morning in anticipation of the celebration. I put that in a preheated 350 degree (F.) oven for an hour or so.

I glazed the meatloaf with a mixture of ketchup and vinegar about a half hour before it was done.

I ate dinner about 8:30 PM in front of the TV. I’ve made better meatloaves before, but this one was pretty tasty. And, the potato was to die for! A real "baked" potato, not just one cooked in the microwave!! Maybe I was just hungry...

I switched to reading and dozed off sometime in the night.