As Canadian city dwellers, we take our running water for granted. Even when the power is out, which it rarely is, the water still runs. Those of you who live the “country” lifestyle will have a different take on this for sure.
Today, on The Food Farm, the water stopped running.
Gayle was doing some breakfast dishes and the tap slowed to a stop. We raised this to our hosts, Angela and Nick immediately.
Nick, who was about to leave for work, moved quickly and efficiently established that it was a breaker panel issue that caused the pump to stop. There was lots of water in the tank, just no pump. Nick and I tried to troubleshoot the issue further, to no avail. The pump is wired in the garage on the same circuits as outlets in the bedrooms.
We had no water, no Internet and the teenagers’ rooms were without power for their devices and gaming equipment. (Since we have some insight into teens, this cause us to laugh a little on the inside.)
Nick called the electrician and on the way out the door gave me the quick go ahead to work with the “sparky” when he came after 1 pm. Angela was heading out for a meeting so I was happy to be entrusted with this. I ran some extension cords and got the water and the Internet running and we went about our day working outside.
When Daniel, the sparky, arrived, his accent was so thick, I could hardly understand him. His company is called “A Sparky for U”. He quickly diagnosed a faulty breaker switch and set out to make a quick job of fixing it. Before he left, I did a quick check to see that everything was working. All seemed good to me.
When Flynn (grade 10) arrived home from his day at school, he found that none of the equipment in his room was working. Matilda (grade 11) confirmed the same for her room.
With the sparky long gone, I put on my electrician hat. (It’s more of a visor with half a brim than a full hat.) I flipped a lot of switches and wiggled some wires. Nothing I did helped in the bedrooms and the water was still working just fine!
How could this be? There had to be another issue.
Frustrated, I knocked on Flynn’s door and asked him what wasn’t working. He pointed to his power bar with plugs leading to multiple devices. I traced the cord to the wall with my eyes. It was not plugged in! Things quickly came back to life when Flynn made the connection. The same proved true in Matilda’s room. During his hurried troubleshooting, Nick had unplugged them.
I know better. To solve a problem, I need first to understand the problem by asking more and better questions. Next time, I guess.