Talk about heat waves! We had lots of all time highs around here. In La Mesa, where we live, it was 113 today. Oh yeah, we’re having a monsoon, too, so the humidity was 58% instead our our usual 15-20% when we get hot.

Naturally, this put all time record stress on the power supplies, too, and transformers were cooking off all around the county. Ours hit about 11:45, with a couple of bounces as it went down, and came back up about 1:15. Unfortunately, not everything came back. One of our main breakers (we have two, one per sub-panel) was hot enough to burn fingers, and crumbled into pieces when I tried to reset it. Off to Home Depot, get a replacement, install it. Oops, that one works, but the other main breaker refuses to reset. Off to Home Depot, get a replacement, install it. Oops, that one works, but one of the air conditioners refuses to run. After poking around with a meter, I discover the blown fuse. Well, it takes two tries to find a replacement because there’s been a run on those fuses today. Finally, Oh joy unbounded, the AC is working again.

While I was out, I heard a report from one of the linemen who had been fixing electrical problems. “We start on the poles, but then things are blown all the way down to people’s houses, and even inside them. It takes a long time to get it all sorted out.” Maybe we should apply for a position as “poster child”.

Anyway, it all seems to be back together, and I’m convinced that the UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply) that I got for the computer was a wonderful investment.

Time to take a nice, cool, shower.