So it’s Black Friday. With no intentions of going anywhere near a store, I rode to Old Town Alexandria to take in the holiday vibe. The air was crisp as were the leaves on the ground. I was surprised that there were few people on the streets. I made my way to Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood. Same story. I headed back home, stopping at the gym to lift some weights.
Once the riding and lifting were done, I headed to our neighborhood hardware store to buy an electrical outlet to replace one that died in our kitchen. It happens to be the one that I use to recharge my bike headlight so I had a particular interest in getting it fixed. After six tries, I found the circuit on our poorly labelled circuit board, then I took out the old outlet and connected the new one. Connecting the outlet should be easy, it’s just three wires after all, but the wires did not want to bend the way I needed them to bend. Much cussing ensued. Finally I got the wires attached, pushed the socket back into the wall and couldn’t get the damned thing to connect to the box in the wall. After 40 minutes of trying, Mrs. Rootchopper came to my rescue. Except she couldn’t get the thing to connect to the box in the wall either.
At this point I threw in the towel and called an electrician. Alas, it is the day after Thanksgiving and good luck finding one who will answer the phone.
As an afterthought I took a table lamp and plugged it in to the new socket. The lamp didn’t turn on. Damn. The problem isn’t the outlet; it’s the wiring to the outlet. Who knew?
There is mysterious electrical issue nearby as well. The socket is on a wall under a cabinet and above a counter top. There is a florescent light, connected to a wall switch, under the cabinet. The light stopped working while I was riding to Florida.
I don’t see now the light, which is connected to five other similar lights that all function properly can be connected in some way to the wall socket. I smell a mouse. Hopefully, this can all be sorted out without taking our kitchen wall apart.
Black Friday indeed. Home repairs drive me insane.
Looking on the bright side, we now know we have a problem that is beyond our skill level. A man has to know his limitations.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
Glad to hear from you after quite a while. I keep checking your page. Glad you are still with the living but… I must say, be careful about old wiring. My current wife lost a house and all her stuff due to faulty wiring. And, thirty years lager, her fabric studio due to faulty wiring. Believe me, it happens!! Meanwhile, onward.
“later” not lager. my bad.
Wiring scares me -I would have called the Electrician long before you guys did, glad you are just frustrated and not shocked. As Monty Python says “Always look on the bright side of life…” I too stayed Far away from malls today, I don’t get why you would do a brick and mortar black friday in this day and age unless you enjoy bloodsport
I’ve changed our sockets before and light switches without incident. This time not so much