Monday, November 18, 2013

Winter reruns

With the first snow of winter behind us, I remembered this:

I finally had the time today to fire up the Grumpy family hot tub for the winter.

So I cleaned it out, filled it up, added chemicals, put in a new filter, etc.

For whatever reason, though, I couldn't find the power cord that comes with it. Because I'm a guy (and therefore inherently stupid) I just grabbed an extension cord out of the garage. Mrs. Grumpy kept telling me I wasn't supposed to do that, because the special hot tub cord had extra circuits or fuses or breakers or whatever in it, and you couldn't use something else.

But I wanted to get the hot tub going, so I told her it would be fine, and hooked it up.

The kids were excited, so I had them out in the yard with me. They counted down from 10 for me to flip the switch, turning it on for the winter.

"5-4-3-2-1- HOT TUB!". I pressed the button. The jets whirled, the water swirled, the kids laughed.

For about 5 seconds.

Then there was a loud "POP!"

And the hot tub turned off.

And the kids stopped laughing.

And all the lights in the house went out.

Another 5-10 seconds of absolute silence went by, finally broken by Mrs. Grumpy saying "You bozo."

She went around to futz with the switch box. She found the correct power cord in the garage. And I am in trouble.

12 comments:

  1. That was a very Clark W. Griswold-esque thing to do.

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  2. JOOOOOOY TO THE WOOOOOOORLD!! THTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTH PSHHHHHH!!!!

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  3. I always wondered where the name Hot Tub came from.

    Ground fault protection saving people from themselves for 25 years.

    Got this minds eye picture of your kids arguing over who wants to go in first. You go, no you go, I 'm not, Hey Dad you go first.

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  4. "The little lights aren't twinkling, Clark."

    "I know, and thanks for noticing."

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  5. As I got half way through, I was expecting a story about Craig's hair standing on end as you shorted out the hot tub.

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  6. And we let him near pts with all kinds of interesting instruments, some electric-powered.

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  7. Ack Ms. Donna, so very true. Please DO NOT say EMG, run I say run......

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  8. School nurses are pretty smart.

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  9. Well, you know, I hope that you confine your somewhat casual attitude concerning material substitution to the occasional do-it-yourself job at the old homestead.

    I'm thinking neurology here, and I don't want to walk out of your office trying to see through my ears or something.

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  10. WADDA i THINK? I'MA NOT COMIN TO YOU

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  11. Well, I would definitely trust you as a neurologist, bust as an electrician... Not so much!

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So wadda you think?