THE WEEKENDER by Clyde Black 3-26
By Claire Cooper Black
The Strong Woman
“I have the electrician’s cell phone number”
We moved to Houston County in the spring of 2002. We have been here 15 years! Other than the house I grew up in in Houston, that’s the longest I have ever stayed in one house.
We love our place here on the ranch. It has many benefits. Unlike our house in Carrollton, Texas, where our neighbor’s houses were maybe 40 feet from ours, our closest neighbor is abou tthree-fourths of a mile away.
If we want to go fishing, we just walk out our back door to the pond. We don’t have a dreaded Home Owners Association (otherwise known as the Strict Rules, No Sense of Humor Committee). If our yard gets a little tall, no city tickets and no HOA reprimands. Just snakes.
However, as a home ages it is inevitable that things will start to wear out. And things never wear out at the same time when you call say … an electrician. No. They usually wait a week in between each other before they just flat out stop working.
So far, I think I have had the electricians out every other week this year. First it was an outdoor spot light that quit working. Then it was the master bath venting and heating fan. Next came the dusk to dawn light on the barn. And next was that weird smoldering smell in my office. I couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but it smelled like something was smoldering and I was the only one who could smell it. Turns out the light fixture on the ceiling fan was doing a slow melt down (something I totally understand). Time to order a new ceiling fan. Have you seen the variety of ceiling fans these days? But I digress.
I was fortunate enough to have the ballast in the kitchen’s fluorescent light go out on the morning the electrician came to replace the ceiling fan. But that was a fluke, because no sooner than those were fixed, another outside spot light fixture quit working the next evening.
And these are just the repairs here at our house. This doesn’t include the repairs we have had done over at the original Weekender house.
I am on a first name basis with the electrician and have his cell phone number. I have the company phone number listed in my “favorites” on my cell phone!
And to answer your questions about why I just don’t fix these issues myself? Well there are two things I don’t mess with: Electricity and Gas. You can get burned by both! And I’m proud to say I know my limitations.
Update: Another spotlight went out shortly after writing this column. We have four. So three have gone out. Yes, I’m going to have the last remaining one replaced WHILE the electrician is here!
