Generating Interest, Part Two

So, did you think a two hour stint at the new school was my only adventure of the week?

Oh, silly, of course not!  That was the beginning.

Because my phone didn't get reception in the counselor's office, i came out of the building to a voice mail.  It was Blair.  Knowing she only calls for one reason, i dialed her.

"I'm on my way right now to pick up a newborn kitten, just one.  Can you take it?"

Can i say no?

Hurrying home so i could meet up with her, i was barely ahead of the generator guy, who was scheduled to come but hadn't told me what time.  Looking out of the window, i suddenly realized he was there, hard at it.

Eventually he and i ended up on the front porch with Blair coming up the drive, and he was asking me to open the indoor room where the box is (actually, Sweetie's man cave) while she handed me a baby so new the umbilical stump wasn't even dry yet.  It couldn't have been more than an hour or so old.

Blair handed me the baby and left, and i went in, opened the room, turned off the central A/C because i knew the electricity would be going on and off as he worked, and fed the baby.

On and off was right.  He worked, and replaced, and tested, and replaced, and my internet went in and out as the electricity came off and on and as i struggled to answer my dad's emails that were fast and furious, never quite knowing which ones were going out and which were getting lost in the shuffle.

Mick finally came in and said he needed another part, and he would be back.  He left the electricity on, thank heaven, as it took him quite a long time.  In fact, i was starting to wonder what had happened when he showed up again, saying, "A big accident on the Interstate,  Every major artery is locked up."

Figures.

He worked more, and i fed kittens and finally got my dad the information he wanted and Mick finally said, "I've put in a call to my Supervisor.  We're going to get this!"

Great, i thought, what now!  No, don't tell me, i'm not sure i want to know.

Eventually, though, i did know.  The Supervisor showed up, and they went through the turn it on/turn it off again a few times, and the Supervisor figured out the problem.  He had to look very closely, but there was one wire loose.  In replacing the relay, it had been knocked ever so slightly askew.

"Do you know how much I want to flip you off for finding that so fast when I thought I had checked everything!" Mick said to his Supervisor with a grin.  "You are lucky she is in the room, so I can't!"

We all laughed.

New control board, new relay, naughty wire back in place, and finally, the last test.  Success.  The generator will once again come on automatically when the power goes out, and cut off properly when it comes back on.

"I'll have them send you an invoice," the Supervisor said.  "Cost of the two parts, plus the truck fee and only one hour of labor.  That's all it should usually take to change out those two parts, so that's all I'll charge you for."

Since it's $95 an hour, and the parts will be around $300, and the truck fee is $100, only having to pay for one hour when it took so many trips and several hours more than that is a blessing. 

Meanwhile, i'll be up nights again for a while.

Today is:

Air Guitar World Championships -- Oulu, Finland (through Saturday; "The purpose of the Air Guitar World Championships is to promote world peace.")

Aquino Day -- Philippines

Buhe -- Ethiopian Orthodox Church (Christian remembrance of the Transfiguration.)

Cadillac Day -- the first Caddy was built this day in 1902

Chung Yuan Festival -- China (Festival of Hungry Ghosts; according to legend, during this 7th lunar month the souls of the dead are released from Purgatory to wander the Earth, and so today is the day to appease those spirits with joss stick burning, prayers and food, "ghost money", and other offerings; dates of this vary in other countries)

Consualia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival of Consus, god of grain and silos)

Corn Palace Festival -- Mitchell, SD, US (harvest celebration and redecoration of the world's only Corn Palace; through Sunday)

Crazy Day -- go crazy, in honor of Patsy Cline recording Willie Nelson's song Crazy on this date in 1961

Fete de la Jeunesse -- Morocco; Western Sahara (Youth Day, on the Birthday of HM Mohammed VI)

Gospel Day -- Kosrae, Micronesia

National Pecan Torte Day

National Senior Citizens Day -- US

National Spumoni
Native Wild Rice Harvest -- Northern Cree, Ojibwa, and Algonkian Native Americans (celebrated during the August full moon; if there are two full moons, it is during the second)

Poet's Day -- a day to celebrate the poet in you, and share special thoughts about poets and poetry

Raksha Bandhan -- Hindu (festival honoring the loving ties between brothers and sister in a family; local observances date may vary)

St. Pius X's Day (Patron of first communicants, pilgrims; Des Moines, Iowa, US; Great Falls-Billings, Montana, US; Kottoyam, India; Santa Lucija, Malta; Springfield-Cape Girardeau, MO, US; Zamboanga, Philippines)

Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration -- Shelbyville, TN, US (an 11-day festival celebrating the world famous Tennessee Walking Horse and crowning this year's World Grand Champion)


Anniversaries Today

Seminole Tribe of Native Americans is legally established and recognized, 1957
Hawai'i becomes the 50th US state, 1959


Birthdays Today

Ozma, Queen of Oz, year unconfirmed
Jackie DeShannon, 1944
Clarence Williams III, 1939
Kenny Rogers, 1938
Wilt Chamberlain, 1936
Shimon Peres, 1923
Christopher Robin Milne, 1920
Friz Freleng, 1906
Count Basie, 1904
William Murdoch, 1754
Francis de Sales, 1567


Today in History

Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shogun and therefore de facto ruler of Japan, 1192
Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt, 1680
James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales, 1770
The Nat Turner slave revolt in Virginia leaves 55 dead, 1831
Mighty Casey (Dan Casey) is struck out! In a game against the N.Y. Giants, 1887
William S Burroghs patents the adding machine, 1888
Oldsmobile is incorporated as a division of General Motors Corp., 1897
Arthur Rose Eldred becomes the first Boy Scout to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, 1912
Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1945
James Anderson, Jr., posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine, 1968
Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport, 1983
Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range, 1986
Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses, 1991
The Red Cross announces the famine in Tajikistan and calls for international aid there and in Uzbekistan, 2001
Hurricane Dean becomes the first storm to make landfall as a Catagory 5 since Hurricane Andrew, 2007