Fire

Nothing like waking up to a living nightmare...


All is well, just had a little fire was all. 

I was very tired and sleepy, so it took awhile for the reality to register. I was sure this was a dream, I just wanted my sleep.


I so hate fighting fire at dark thirty.

What woke me up was breathing issues, then I realized it stunk around here and my nightlight in the kitchen  was going on and off. The fan was speeding up and slowing down. I figured it was the power company having a brown out.

I fought out of the bed with my one good arm, almost tossing a sleepy puppy into the floor. I ran around unplugging everything while he looked at me with one very sleepy eye open at half mast.

When I went outside, hoping Big Foot wouldn't scare me,  I was hit in the face with stinky stuff!  The utility post I am plugged into was having a meltdown or something. Can't really see, but I sure can smell it. That awful smell.  Yucky poo!

Last night was rough on me, up and down all night long with arm pain. Then finally I doze off to a nice deep sleep. Ahhh...

Something bad went wrong with the electrical power out here at the park.

Smells awful too and the wires and fire is underground it seems.

My left arm went on the fritz again, so you aren't going to see me shoveling up the mess with one arm. I know that sounds so entertaining to watch...

I've called for reinforcements but nobody has shown up yet. It's only been a few hours. But it's a big holiday week, so could be issues there too.

Sad thing is the underground wires run through the nice pretty patch of grass. The only patch of grass around here.

Well, I am going to dress up, comb my hair and then lay back down. At least I will look nice when they show up to see about the stinky mess.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battery died before I managed to get this posted. Now I have power again. Yippie!

It's a long story and I am dead tired. What is wrong with me?  I guess it's the 106F degree heat.

Anyhow, their breaker on the electrical box had a meltdown, but so did my electric plug. The 30amp plug that is at the end of my motorhome's electrical cord was having an internal burnout, the neutral wire had melted loose, so it was a double mess.

When the electricians came out to fix their box, they then realized my cord was part of the problem too. I don't drive around with a spare 30amp plug, though I have adapters, inverters, transformers, fuses and extension cords. But no spare plug.  A phone call later and we had located one at a hardware store 10 miles away. That's the closest one. A place I would have loved to visit again as it's seemingly 100 or more years old. One of those hardware stores that just has everything, including little brown wooden drawers with glass windows and porcelain knobs holding an array of exotic parts. Arched windows outlined in brick, creaky wooden floors, a cat sleeping in the middle of the aisle who hisses at my dog. You can find parts for your claw footed bathtub there or manure for your farm.

But I am sort of stuck here.

My transmission isn't due to be fixed until next Thursday, God willing and the credit card working, so the idea of driving with no generator, a leaky transmission (it only leaks when it's hot) could leave me broken down on the side of the road for a few days. I couldn't use the generator because of my bad plug. My little old RV requires the cord to be plugged into the generator. Fancier RV's have this prewired. Mine is not that way.  My RV is rather simple, both a blessing and a curse.

Sooooooooo...  I was trying to talk the guys into driving 10 miles to the hardware store to get the part.  They were sure their boss would fire them if they did this.

I explained I would "pay" for this service as it sure beats the heck out of having no electricity until Thursday night. I didn't think I could even live through the 106F degree heat what with all my little medical problems and equipment.

Finally they called their boss, presented my case to him, that I couldn't go get the part due to no car, and the RV's transmission wasn't getting repaired until Thursday. I had volunteered to call the agency I volunteer for workamping, to see if they would fetch the electrical part. That is when they decided to call their boss.

Luckily the boss agreed to let them run grab the part, put it on, and get me going again. Yay!  There would be no charge, except for the part.

These guys must drive a lot faster than I do, because it seems they were only gone 20 minutes then they were back with the treasured part. Whew!  By now, the puppy and I had been out in the shade staring at the 106F thermometer. I had finally hosed my clothes down with water, just to cool off. I put ice cubes in the dog's water bowl, then watched them boil into nothingness. I squirted more water on my clothes. Now I looked like I was entering a wet T-shirt contest but I didn't care. The heat was rising as noon rolled around.

Another 20-30 minutes and they had the offending part replaced. I tried to pay them which they refused. But after they were in their truck, I tucked a generous amount into the driver's shirt pocket and suggested they could use it to help celebrate  July 4th. They kept refusing the money, but I insisted and walked away. I hope they were pleasantly surprised when they saw the amount.

Sure I am on an "efficient" budget, but it's also important to be grateful. I know that guy dreaded calling his boss to get permission to do this favor, as technically they were responsible for just fixing the utility post, and I was responsible for repairing the cord on my end, which I had no idea might be part of the problem until now.

Of course in 106F degrees I would have happily gave away the motorhome and not even noticed my gaffe until I cooled off again.