Not What I Planned

I had planned on taking my Dad, brother and daughter up to Mille Lacs on Tuesday July 3rd. My family hasn’t caught big walleye before and figured we had a great opportunity to do so. I had everything set to go. Boat and truck gassed up, food packed, tackle and rods set to go, spinners all tied up, route planned of spots to try on the water and hitting the sack early. We were heading out early in the morning on Tuesday and everything had fallen in line for a great start to the trip.

About 11 PM I heard some odd sounds from the electrical in the house. I got up and discovered that half of our home had no power. The basement and our room was fine along with the fridge but the rest of the house had nothing. The central air was spinning but no cold air was coming out. I went down to check all the breakers and they were fine, nothing tripped. This was a head scratcher for me. I started flipping breakers in hopes something would trigger it to no avail. I even flicked off the main to the house and reset it, nothing. I wasn’t sure what the problem was as I have never experienced half a home not having power. I asked my Dad what he thought and in his 82 years he’s never seen it either.

By this time the wife was up and we were going around on what to do. I figured I would have to stay home on Tuesday and get someone out to look at it. Of course the circuit that housed my router was down so I plugged my phone into my computer to go online. Once I googled it I discovered that it is possible to loose half your power from the power company if one of the lines that goes into your home is down. I figured this was the case and also why the central air wasn’t working right since you need 220 for that to run.

Of course this all ruined our plans for fishing. No way I could leave my Mom home in a house that was warming up quickly. In the morning we got up to still no power. My neighbor called out an electrician who told him what I had found on the net. By this time the house was warming up to 80 degrees and I knew we had to get out of it soon. Just as we were ready to leave the power guys showed up. They replaced the transformer on the pole with a new one. The old one was original from the 1940’s so it was time for it to go.

So, we went out to eat and took our time so the house could cool down. Came home and Lizzy and I went in the pool and then we just sat around and visited. It’s not what was planned out, the morning would have been great weather to be up on Mille Lacs pulling bait around, but we ended up with a good day together.

One of these days I actually be able to plan a fishing trip and make it out there. This year has been bad for me in making it out.

Roll with the punches.

That sucks, I’m putting our trip off because of the heat.

Similar experience we lost one side of our box once from a bad main breaker. Difference was it was the coldest night of the year a few years ago, packed up the family and stayed at a friends house for the night, the house only got down to around 50 so at least nothing froze. The shorted breaker took out the wire coming from the meter so had to pull a new one in the cold the next day, no fun.

At least everyone is ok and now you got a little taste of what it is like out east, I’m sure just a little taste was enough.

SandmanND, you have as much luck getting on the water as i do!! Better luck in your next venture.

I worked for 35 years as a Lineman and Trouble shooter for the Power Co. Wisconsin Energy to be exact. My advice to all is this= If you have Electrical problems, no matter the time of day or night, even if it is a holiday. If you cannot figure it out “Call your Power Co.” They will dispatch someone to see if it is their problem. If it is, they will get it fixed. If there is a major storm or wide spread problems, you may have to wait in line, but at least they will know about it.