On the Grid

      For a time I wondered why I seemed to be suffering from such an assortment of unrelated ailments. My headache never seemed to go away. Sure, I'd had plenty to drink with supper so that could have been it. But my stomach never settled down. The pains in my shoulder seemed to get worse, or was it more arthritis? Sleep? Forget it. One day I swear I had a fever. I stayed in bed and proved it with a thermometer. Then a sore throat. I convinced myself I was coming down with something. Then my teeth started aching. Haemorrhoids. And that damned tinitus never went away.
      On the morning of the 7th, everything went away. At the end of one of the last posts, I said if everything goes right on the 7th, it will be a miracle. I was right. And the debate about miracles can continue.
      First of all, a delivery truck had to brave London morning rush-hour to get our new wood stove to Eileen's house by 10am after a five hour drive across southern England. Miraculously, they did it; but the transit van we hired with Eileen didn't consider London morning rush-hour and the delivery man found himself waiting, and waiting. When time ran out, the 250kilo (550lbs) package was lowered to the top of a nearby dumpster where it had to wait before being manhandled down to our transit van. I'm glad I wasn't there. I'm also glad I didn't know about it.
     But the reason I didn't know about it was because our Italian electrical utility company somehow managed to plunge us into radio silence that very morning. They decided to replace the feed line to our neighborhood with a four conductor, three-phase wire. This in an attempt to more efficiently transport electricity from our new solar panels to the grid. Well, somebody crossed one of the wires and when the power came on, a lot of things went off. Like the washing machine. And the water heater. TV. CD players. Microwave oven. The computer battery chargers, in fact ANY battery charger and ANY transformer. The internet modem. And, oh yes, the telephones.
      So there we were. Off the grid.

      And there we remained until I remembered an old fax machine in the attic that had a handset attached to it. Our first call was to the electrical utility company, and so were our second and third calls. We've got power all right, expensive power at that.
      Normal electricity was quickly restored and our meter continues to run, running up the bill; but the foot-dragging and the paperwork required to claim for damages could go on for a year or more. All four houses in the Borgo are effected and all are facing heavy replacement costs. Our water heater alone will require a $500 control panel.
      I can't wait to start making my own electricity. It's going to be the next miracle medical cure.