Wednesday morning, July 9, around 1:30am, we were awakened by a loud thunderclap and a bright slash of lightning. The power went out momentarily, then came back on. When it came back on, the UPS unit that we have some of our computer equipment hooked up to began sounding an alarm. I tried turning it off, but the alarm kept sounding. I tried unplugging it, but the alarm kept sounding. The only way I could get the alarm to stop was by opening it up and disconnecting the battery.
We finally went back to bed and slept until 6am.
I found other places to plug in the equipment - albeit not all of it surge-supressed and battery-backedup. It was then I discovered the horrible fact that the modem for our satellite internet had been fried.
This led to a long conversation with a help-desk Indian named Kevin, and his supervisor named David Smith. Names notwithstanding, I knew where they were by their accents and the Indian music that played while I was on hold.
The conversation boiled down to me trying to figure out why they would not let me pay actual money to expedite the shipping of a new modem. Money did not mean anything to Kevin or his supervisor David Smith. There was no way I could get the modem before five to seven days later.... unless....
Unless I was willing to sign up for the two-day repair service for only $5.95 more per month, plus a $99 co-pay since I was having to use the service before the thirty-day pre-existing period expired.
Okay, they were working from a script and nothing I said would convince them otherwise. Added to the fact I NEEDED the modem TODAY and not a week later, I signed up.
I asked, "So the modem will arrive at my house by Friday, right?"
Things do not work that way. If I had not signed up, they could have sent the modem directly to me. Since I signed up, they could send the modem only to a contracted technician in my area, who would then have to bring it to me and set it up.
It is Thursday as I write this, and I have yet to hear from the technician as to what time tomorrow he will be out here. (PS - When the tech came out, it took him from 9am until 4pm to get the modem working and a good signal)
After that, I fired up my laptop and it would not boot up. It went into a cycle of having to check the integrity of the disk drive, then the BOSD (Blue Screen of Death), followed by another check disk, followed by another BSOD. Some times I was able to boot into the safe mode, some times not. Some times I could see some kind of error message that seemed to indicate trouble with the ethernet card.
So, that taken care of, I went to take my shower. Turned the faucet on - NO WATER! What the heck happened?
The song from Oklahoma ran through my brain... Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I've got a horrible feeling...
We are on a well. I checked the switch box for the house and all the circuit breakers were okay. I turned the one for the pump on and off just to make sure.
There are two other boxes in the utility room next to the pressure tank. I opened the first one and saw two blown fuses. "No trouble," I thought. I turned off the power, replaced the fuses, turned the power back on and THE TWO FUSES BLEW IMMEDIATELY!
My knowledge about wells and pumps being totally exhausted, I called the company that installed the well. They did not promise they would be out the same day, but would make a call to their guys out in the field and let me know.
Oh "well"... pun intended
I don't feel human in the mornings until I have had a nice long hot shower. Hot showers wake me up better than cold showers. So, I went to our daughter's house down the road and took a nice long hot shower and came home feeling like a human.
The well company came out late morning or early afternoon. They duplicated my experiment with new fuses and checked the other electrical box (someday I need to figure out what those two boxes are actually for).
They then pulled their truck around to the well, opened it up, and began pulling the pipe out of the well. It was around fifteen 21-foot pieces attached to each other - over three-hundred feet of metal pipe in a six-hundred foot well.
They finally came to the pump and told me, based on some number on it, that it was 30 years old.
It turned out that the well pump was blown out by the lightning and the wiring was charred.
A replacement pump, plus labor could be had for the mere cost of a low-end used car. Time to call the insurance company. We have a $1000 deductible and the insurance would kick in for the rest of the cost of the pump. While they were at it, I had them replace the rusted pipes with PVC for only a few hundred more.
They installed the new pump, wiring, and pipes, then "shocked" the well with a huge dose of chlorine in some form.
As of late afternoon Thursday, the water was still horribly dirty. We were not supposed to drink it for a couple of days because of all the chlorine they added to the well to "shock" it. The water was so dirty we had to bypass the water filters for the house so as not to clog them up.
We finally were able to turn the switch to let the water go through the filters on the weekend. It stained the basins and tubs and showers. We did not use the dishwasher or washing machine until we hooked back up the filters. We showered at our daughter's house until we turned the filters back on. We turned off the ice-maker and water in the refrigerator. We drank bottled water and soda, and used bottled water for brushing our teeth.
