Friday, July 15, 2011

Electrical Outlets Are A Magical Thing


We take them for granted.  They are pretty mundane in a way.  When one stops working then we often just find another one that does.  My band saw, miter saw, and lights in my studio operate on three electrical outlets wired into a single breaker in the breaker box.  In December I lost one side of one of the outlets above my miter saw which I thought was a little odd.  But I was a good sport and just moved to the other outlet.  In June, that outlet stopped working in the middle of a cut.  I ran an extension cord to the next outlet and was dismayed to learn there was no juice in that one either.  That outlet also had a portable light hooked up.  So now with 2 outlets not putting out any electricity, I had no light, and no way to run my saws, grinder, and power tools in half my studio.  That pretty much shuts down my shop.  Yesterday, I had a guy look into the problem and this morning I am happily back to the grindstone.  The guy was puzzled as to why there were not three prong outlets installed above my machines that all have 3 prong plugs.  I suppose it was an economical decision.  However, it caused me to have to go out and buy 3 prong adapters for all my saws and grinder.   My landlord hired a general all purpose maintenance man that apparently doesn't know how to run electrical outlets in addition to not knowing how to bank gutters and hang doors.  He had told me she pays him half his usual rate.  I guess I should be grateful that anything around here was done properly at all  last year.  I know I wouldn't have a good attitude if I was working for half my rate.  I also wouldn't just drop everything on a dime when there was a problem and come running back to the 1/2 pay job site.  When I look around in wonderment at all the problems I have had to address here and pay for in addition to having to clean up after them, I am amazed this place looks as good as it does!  A working electrical outlet is a magical thing.

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