Universal…

Who knew that electrical problems could be solved with a simple snip of pliers? I mean it sounds like a solution I would come up with.

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Are landlords universally the same? I mean our current landlord bears a striking resemblance, both physically and in management style, to a landlord S and I had in Illinois. He seems to have an old crony who used to be or knows a bit about electricity, plumbing, painting, wallpapering etc.

Back on November 16th I blogged about several problems we were having with the house and that I needed to call the landlord. You may recall that he poopoo-ed the roof leak in the garage as not a problem and promised to get the wallpaper and light fixture fixed.

Well, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that these items have never been fixed.

The other day my neighbor came to the door and rang the door bell. The ringing of said doorbell tripped all the breakers and plunged us into darkness. I went out and reset the main breaker and when the lights came back on I noticed that one switch was still off; I flipped it on and was once again plunged into complete darkness. Flipped on main breaker and left the one that was off alone.

Upon re-entering the house I discovered that this breaker covers not only the front door lights and the doorbell but also the front hall lights, the kitchen lights the WC and the dining room. But the living room light and the light over the stove and the outlet the fridge is plugged into, mysteriously, still worked. My point is that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what things are hooked into each breaker.

Anyway, I phoned the landlord to relate this latest development, and he answered from… his ski vacation… in the Alps (my rent euros, hard at work). He said, upon hearing these developments, that he would send his ‘cousin’ around the next day to check out the problem.

The cousin’s solution was to take a pair of pliers and snip off the offending light fixture. I admit that it did solve the problem breaker tripage, however, we still have no front door light. Aaarrrrgggghhhhh!

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In other news, it actually smelled warm outside today. It’s fabulous! Spring, though it has been dragging is feet, is finally arriving so now I must go and sit in that very inviting spot of sunshine on my bed.