At the house where I hung from the rafters, there were other problems occurring with the wiring.  Various (well, nearly all) appliances and plug in devices were not working.  There had been some Utility work done lately, and it turned out that the serving Utility had left a neutral loose on their end of the wiring.

The loose neutral had produced strange variances in the wiring voltage.  As a consequence much of the household appliances and devices had been burned out.  It took me quite awhile to determine that all of the problems were caused by the power company’s wiring.  Sometimes it’s a relief to find out it is someone else’s work that is the root cause.  Besides, the Utility pockets were deeper than mine when it came to replacing all the damaged electronic equipment.

Another job we were re-wiring was a truck stop and café that shared one building.  There were also a trucker’s lounge, laundry and shower facilities in the building.  The job entailed re-wiring nearly the whole building as well as putting in some outside lighting to enhance the appearance.

While doing all the wiring, we kept the fuel pumps and café operating at full capacity.  It required some extra effort, but it wasn’t too burdensome.  One day while we were working, we accidently cut the neutral that governed many of the facilities.  Included among them were the controllers to the communication with the fuel pump charging devices and the office computers.

When the electrician called back to the office he said; “I just blew up the truck stop.”

My wife just about died.  Well, not literally.  But she envisioned sirens, fires, explosions, walls of flames, etc.  A veritable Hollywood Movie set explosion.  She asked if he was hurt or if anyone else was hurt.

Instead, it wasn’t that type of blow up.  I apologized to the proprietor of the establishment and told him that our insurance would take care of the damages.

It was one time I collected on insurance.

The proprietor was very understanding and we didn’t lose a customer.