120 volts lost and found

There’s always work going on at Sonlight. Things need to be fixed, replaced, improved, whatever. Lately, the work has all be about wiring. More specifically, the work has all been about reorganizing the AC wiring mess that has accumulated slowly over the years. We’d all agree that the situation was ripe for a redo. John and his team of guys has been disconnecting, rerouting and reconnecting folks for days.

Our day was last week. The power was off for a while, then it was back on. Except it wasn’t all back on it was just about half back on. We had only one leg of our 220 so about half the outlets in the house worked. With enough extension cords I managed to get the refrigerator and freezer running. After being off most of the day though, they were pulling too much for me to also try the run much else. Needless to say, it was a long, muggy night.

After many hours, spanning two days, of troubleshooting it was almost back on. We just couldn’t seem to work out the other leg of the 220. We had working before, so it should work again. And then Voila! We thought we were in business, but no. We found the missing 120 volts, but they ended up on the same line as the first 120 volts. Zzzap!  I was pretty sure we’d killed the water pump, washer, freezer and refrigerator.

This kind of electrical experience is a great teacher. After this misconnection, we know exactly which wires were providing each leg of 120v.

I spent the rest of the day teaching and silently wondering and praying about how many things might be burned up at home.  In the end, we lost a water pump, a coffee maker, an ethernet switch, a power strip and a power supply for a video game. Not too shabby all things considered.

I use the extra time it takes to make coffee(on the stove) each morning to think about how blessed we are to have what we have. The pump has been replaced, I found an old ethernet switch and the power strip and video game part can hopefully be replaced over our Christmas travel.

God is good even when we’re angry and unappreciative. His love doesn’t remove the junk of this world from our lives.  It reminds me that this world is not my home. I have my eyes on a better place.

PS: Thank you, John,  for all you do. You’re a blessing.