Power out, for a bit.

Well I’ve been without power since Saturday. Actually, the power just came back on to my house a few hours ago. Apparently the voltage from the town’s power station surged to 380V Saturday morning and should have tripped a main circuit breaker about a half a mile away from Wouram. The circuit breaker cuts off power to the Wouram hospital, and about 40 houses, mine included. Well, the circuit breaker did not do its job and the 380V continued to the hospital and every house it serves. As a result, a breaker at the hospital blew and started a small fire. No one was hurt and the damage was limited to just one room, but it caused quite a bit of a headache for the hospital’s technician who had to clean up the mess, and is still repairing the damage done. The hospital has power now though so I guess it’s mostly fixed. Luckily none of my electrical stuff was hurt since the power was cut off at the hospital when its circuit breaker blew, and caught on fire.

Since I haven’t had electricity, I haven’t been writing my blogs in my spare time in the evening, and then sending them out when I access the internet which is what I usually do. When I’m on the internet for only a couple hours every couple days, I don’t really have the time to write out a blog. My time is usually spent writing emails, checking Facebook, checking the news, and seeing if I can find any advice online on how to fix certain engine problems. But, since I now have power and internet, I will try to write a short blog. Not much has been going on outside of the normal. I’ve been diagnosing motorcycle electrical problems here, checking out rough idling pickup trucks there… Things like that.

I’ve been operating by candlelight and flashlight in the evenings. I’ve been sticking to most of my reading during the day or at the Lokkers, who always have power for lights since they have solar power and batteries and are not relying on the town’s electricity. Although, they don’t always have 110-220V to power computers which is a luxury I do have in my house, that is, when the electricity is working.

Today, the Smiths, the people whose internet I use, just came back from the States. They arrived in Younde a couple days ago and flew into Banyo at the same “airport” strip that John and Sherri flew out of three weeks ago. Bob picked them up from the airport and took them to their house, a few minutes away from mine. They brought with them my camera cable that my sister or mom shipped to them while they were still at home in Colorado. I’m hoping to load a few pictures online. We shall see how it goes since the internet is a bit slow.

Until next time…