And The Lights Came On

Left in the garden, abandoned.

We can only eat so many tomatoes.

~~~~~~~~~~

I got home late yesterday afternoon and walked in the living room to find everyone sitting in a semi-dark room. 

"What's up with the dark?" I asked, looking around the room.

"We have no power in the living room. But just the wall outlets. Not the light switches," came the reply. They were engrossed in their iPads, not really concerned with our electrical problem.

The Man and I were headed out for dinner, since our anniversary was yesterday. I wasn't too eager to get sucked into we-should-fix-this-problem-before-we-eat land. I told him I was hungry and skedaddled out of the room, telling J and K to find some extension cords and get everything switched over to plugs that worked in nearby rooms. 

When we got back from dinner, the Man called our electrician. He asked the Man a few questions, sent the Man downstairs to test some fuses, and then said he'd be out early this morning before I had to leave for work. 

And he was. Very prompt. He and his son carefully examined everything. The circuit board. The wiring. Switches. Relays. They tested the wall outlets. Dead, dead, dead. They turned on the light switches and everything worked. Dad electrician moved the sofa, stirring up a few dust bunnies as he moved it away from the wall. Thankfully I had vacuumed under there recently or I would have been mortified. He threatened to take pictures anyway. Did I tell you I know these guys from the library? They are a whole lot of fun.

Fun electricians. Every homeowner needs to have some on retainer.

They were puzzled. They had been in the house for about fifteen minutes and had come up with nothing. No reason for the power outage. They almost started scratching their heads when Dad electrician looked at the wall behind me. 

"Why are those two switches covered?" he asked, pointing to two light switches on the wall in the dining room. They have hard plastic cases covering them, stopping someone from hitting the switch underneath.

"Oh, those are the two switches Mom told us never to hit if we wanted to keep things working in here," I replied blithely. Then I blinked.

I looked at Dad Electrician. He was looking at me, smiling. He walked over to one of the switches and pushed it.

The lights came on.