All good things

[Bagelcat]

Try adding a little butter. Grilled cheese sandwiches are so good at least partly because of the butter. Nor do you need to use a lot of butter. A little dab will do ya, as was once told to me in a commercial. OTOH, if you really like butter a really big dab will do ya even better. Especially if you let it soak through the bread.

Note: guys, "a little dab will do ya" is an old advertising slogan. It's so old that I doubt many of you will even have heard it, though for a few years it was inescapable. Those few years were more than 60 years ago.

Further note: I had thought that the last storm had caused a power problem that had taken out my refrigerator and microwave. And then I tried to wash a load of clothes and discovered that the washer didn't work, and that the washer-refrigerator-microwave were in a straight line and likely on the same circuit. So I used a stout extension cord to put the washer on a different circuit and it worked. Same for the refrigerator. The microwave is more complicated to put an extension cord on, so I've asked an electrician to figure out what the problem is -- bad breaker (I reset them all twice with no effect), bad wiring, or gremlins.

The breaker box has a written description of most of the circuits and most of the descriptions no longer apply or don't apply to the things that go without power when I turn the breaker off. I'll let the electrician riddle them out and create an accurate description of everything. I think the written descriptions are about 50 years out of date. I no longer have a Jacuzzi, for example. I will not meddle with high voltage, not even to save money. Let the tradesman earn his fee; he's worked hard to get the right.

Isn't "a little dab will do ya" an old ad for Barbisol Hair Creme? I'm not old enough to remember the commercials directly (I'm 54) but my Dad and I used to listen to old recordings of radio plays and serials and I remember that ad. Also the one for Pespi "Pepsi Cola hits the spot, 12 full ounces, that's a lot. Twice as much for a nickel, too. Pepsi Cola is the drink for you."

[2cute]

Try adding a little butter. Grilled cheese sandwiches are so good at least partly because of the butter. Nor do you need to use a lot of butter. A little dab will do ya, as was once told to me in a commercial. OTOH, if you really like butter a really big dab will do ya even better. Especially if you let it soak through the bread.

Note: guys, "a little dab will do ya" is an old advertising slogan. It's so old that I doubt many of you will even have heard it, though for a few years it was inescapable. Those few years were more than 60 years ago.

Further note: I had thought that the last storm had caused a power problem that had taken out my refrigerator and microwave. And then I tried to wash a load of clothes and discovered that the washer didn't work, and that the washer-refrigerator-microwave were in a straight line and likely on the same circuit. So I used a stout extension cord to put the washer on a different circuit and it worked. Same for the refrigerator. The microwave is more complicated to put an extension cord on, so I've asked an electrician to figure out what the problem is -- bad breaker (I reset them all twice with no effect), bad wiring, or gremlins.

The breaker box has a written description of most of the circuits and most of the descriptions no longer apply or don't apply to the things that go without power when I turn the breaker off. I'll let the electrician riddle them out and create an accurate description of everything. I think the written descriptions are about 50 years out of date. I no longer have a Jacuzzi, for example. I will not meddle with high voltage, not even to save money. Let the tradesman earn his fee; he's worked hard to get the right.

Wow, that sounds complicated. I wouldn't have figured that out. I just would have 'hand washed' my clothes and 'air dried' after until my power was restored.

[Spike1007]

Earlier this year I also had trouble with one circuit supplying some of my upstairs overhead lights. It started out with a breaker tripping occasionally. I could reset it and I'd be good for days or longer, so I lived with it. It got worse over time, until the breaker would trip pretty much every time I'd try to reset it. If I waited long enough (generally days) I could reset it and be good for a while, but it would trip again eventually. The major inconvenience was that the upstairs bathrooms were on the circuit. I stewed over that for a while and considered calling an electrician, but held off. I know I had squirrels in my walls and attic and suspected them as the cause. I thought if I locate the problem, I could save the electrician some time (and me some money) and give myself something interesting to do. Being retired, I have plenty of free time, so I started trying to track the wires. I thought the attic was the obvious place to start, since the wires there were easily accessible, both to me and the squirrels. I did learn that I'm probably well past my attic-crawling prime, but after a few days of crawling around and mapping and inspecting wires I found all the cables I could see were intact. By that time, it had turned into more of a hobby (and a challenge) than a job and I wasn't ready to turn the thing over to an electrician. I got in deeper, sending away for a decent circuit tester/tracer, and spent days playing, with the circuit, opening outlets, connecting and disconnecting outlets, deciding what was connected to what inside the walls. Finally I tracked it to one bedroom, then to one specific place and cut a hole in the wall. It turned out it was squirrels. They had chewed through a cable connecting two outlets, stripping the outer insulation and all the insulation from the hot wire for about six inches. Apparently I'd somehow get intermittent contact between the hot and ground wires. I assumed the squirrels would cause the short in their travels. (It turned out that my new hole in the wall was just where they'd chewed in from the outside, so they were right at the wire every time they went in or out.) I don't really understand why I didn't find any fried squirrels in the wall. In any case, by that time I decided I could fix it myself. I'm sure it's not up to code, but I have my lighted bathrooms again at night.

[BoggleOtaku]

I've had some interesting brushes with electrical.
-Invited to touch >square foot cross section bare copper trusses with 70000 A going through them at Al reduction plant (declined).
-At casting plant, invited to live-change 400A fuses (declined).
-Replaced our 60A induction cooktop struck by lightning (success).
-Built extruder ultrasonic assist using three 20kW stadium sound amplifiers. (fail).
-With coworker tried to repair broken 300A DC laser supply (fail).

20% success rate, where it mattered most.

[BoggleOtaku]

Spike1007,

I remember working at a national lab where the power went off for our entire building for a day because mice or other had chewed through main conduit insulation.

[Spike1007]

I've replaced an electric stove burner and a fried switch, but my "expertise" doesn't extend much beyond that. I'm impressed with your list, and given that you're still around, it looks like you know what you're doing, and when to say no.

I visited a few national labs. The only power outage (no idea whether it was mouse-related) was in the cafeteria one day. The lights and cash registers were out, but for some reason they could still cook. The checker would just eyeball your tray and charge some random amount. I ended up with two chili cheese bacon jalapeno burgers with fries for $5.

[BoggleOtaku]

Maybe I should consider that a 100% success rate, then!

Nowadays I've been mainly trying to troubleshoot Christmas lights. The three strand ones are confusing, why certain bulbs burn out and continues working while with others a whole section goes out.