Zee Magical Swvitch

Actually more like "Zee Magical Red Button" . . .

So, we were a little bummed out when we discovered, upon moving into our new place, that about half the electrical outlets on the main level didn't work. This included the outlet for the washer and dryer (kind of a modern necessity) and most of the outlets in the kitchen (which initiated some acrobatic-like feats with kitchen appliances). Bill went to work at solving the problem. His initial assessment revealed a fried electrical wire, which we were sure was the culprit. At the risk of encountering death by electrical shock, Bill decided to hold off on tinkering with the wire until he had some better backup than myself (I married a very smart man).

Cue in one electrically-minded father-in-law. Yesterday, armed and ready, they went to work, determined to shed some light (har, har) on our electrical issue. It seems as if the fried wire was just an innocent bystander. After some minor troubleshooting, they found the source of the problem. Turns out there is a little red button on an outlet inside of a cabinet that had conveniently been hiding behind our blender. I guess, when pressed, this red button will restore electricity to a tripped circuit breaker (or something of that nature).

The funny thing is, I've looked at that outlet several times and pondered what would happen if I pressed the red button (this is probably common knowledge to most people, isn't it). All of that conditioning as a kid (you know the whole "don't pull that switch on the fire alarm", "don't stick that penny into the electrical outlet", "don't remove this tag from your pillow at risk of federal prosecution", etc.) did me no good in this situation. I could have fixed the problem weeks ago. Oh well, now I can run the blender, crock-pot, mixer and washer and dryer all at once if the right situation ever presented itself. Oh, the things we take for granted in life . . .