everydaywithvj

It was an ordinary Sunday morning, as ordinary as anything has been during the pandemic. Church is still outdoors and attendance limited. We had a reservation for 2, sitting on the picnic benches where the school children eat lunch, for 9:30 a.m. We live a mile away, so at around 9:10 we were ready to leave home, have a short relaxing ride, then park and get to our seats. Ready, set,  BEEEEEP . . . . .  BEEEEEP. . . . .  BEEEEEP. . . . .  BEEEEEP!  Where in the world is that high pitched beep coming from?  I headed towards the sound and saw hubby’s handheld radios. Ah, maybe that is it, a signal that one of the batteries is out.  Hubby came into the office just as a continuous wail started. WWWWWWWAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLL. What is going on?  Then hubby announced the cause in two words, “Power Failure”.  We had been walking out of the house and had not noticed it the split second before the BEEEEP that there was a power failure.

Simple, right?  A power failure. We were leaving home anyway, so no worries. The wail continued, along with a flashing red light on the uninterruptible power source beneath the desk. But everything was off – except the backup battery in the uninterruptible power source. We tried a few things and finally it dawned on us to just unplug everything, hit the power button, and leave the darn thing alone. Whew, we could leave. We will still be on time.

But not quite yet. The house alarm was chirping – chirp , , , chirp , , , accompanied by a flashing yellow light on the control panel. It was telling us that there was a power failure. Duuuuuu, yep, we already know that. [side note – it is really irritating to be sleeping soundly and have that chirp wake you up to alert you to a power failure in the middle of the night when there is not a darn thing you can do about it] Deep cleansing breaths, leave the house, lock the doors, and we will be off. It is only 9:20. We live a mile away. We will be on time.

We walk to the garage. Oooops, the roll up door is operated by a control panel that uses, wait for it . . . . . electricity! Another Duuuuuh. There is an override, which you access via a keyed lock. The key to the lock is inside the house. Turn around, unlock the doors, find the key, leave the house, lock the doors.  Hubby unlocks the override lock, standing on tip toe, and barely reaching.  It takes a few tries to remove the locking mechanism so that the garage can be opened.  Finally, it works, and we push the door up. I get in my car and back it out.  To be on the safe side, Hubby backs his car out also. We roll down the door and think we are ready to leave.

But WAIT! There is more. Our driveway has a wrought iron gate. It is controlled by remotes in our cars, and powered by, you guessed it, electricity.  Walk down the driveway, take the mechanism apart, manually open the gate, back the car out, pull the gate to and then use a sliding latch to keep it closed.

Finally, we are in the car and driving down the street. We get to church, park, and are in our seats just five minutes late.  Perfect time to sneak in and sit in the back. But, of course, nothing ordinary has happened so far. Since we had reservations, as required, we were checked in and led by an usher to the seating available for two.  Front row.  Luckily it is a big congregation and we are not well known, so we won’t be the talk of the parish, but my dad was an usher for many years and I can hear him in heaven any time we are late – “tsk, tsk, you’re late! Get up early. Move your hands fast”. Dad, it wasn’t my fault. Honest!

How was your Sunday?

Every Day Is A Good Day – VJ

P.S. – By Sunday night we had figured out that the uninterruptible power supply back-up battery was the issue.  Hubby left it charged overnight, without a load, and had a green ready light Monday morning. Then he plugged in the computer and immediately a red light came on. Our guess is that the back-up battery had gone out some time ago but there was not power failure to test its merits.  A quick look in our files found the “what to do” book and now there is a new battery, fully charged, and ready to rescue things plugged into it. 

VJ