Our first day of the New Year started at 6:45 am, if you don’t count the half hour I was up at midnight watching the fireworks. I went out on the patio to see them better and also saw the glowing red dots of the floating lanterns. My jet lag state kept me from being too sleepy to get up at midnight, but must have helped me sleep after, since I slept through my 5 am watch alarm.
The late start meant jumping rope for my workout at 11:30, followed by a cold shower because the electricity to run the little shower water heater was off. The electricity went off in our room sometime after we went to bed at 8 the night before. Maybe it had something to do with the blow up of our power strip that afternoon. That was how Gary discovered our old transformer didn’t work. He also discovered we needed an adapter to plug anything into our new transformer. Since all of our electrical based devices were run down at that point, including the computer, the first thing on our agenda that morning became finding an electrical parts store.
We had seen one in a little mall on our previous visits, so it was a matter of walking there following our map. Many people wished us “Happy New Year” as we walked along, figuring we would understand that English!
Our map got us to the right locality, and suddenly everything looked familiar. Soon we found the mall, and one of the electrical supply places inside. They had a power strip that would take any kind of plugs, so we bought that. We also found a shorter way to get home.
After his nap (and my exercise) Gary found an outlet in the common area to get everything plugged in and recharged. The last thing we plugged in was the computer. It was the thing we least wanted fried. My “brain” charged up quickly. Other things took longer. Our toothbrush hasn’t made it yet!
Soon after this, the manager for this Lighthouse guesthouse showed up. She flipped several breakers in the electrical box in the main room after I commented on our electricity situation. That didn’t work, though. Then Gary noticed circuit breakers in ours. He flipped those and our power was back.
We set up everything in the room then. All was well until we realized the transformer was overheating and turning off. That meant the computer would go on to battery power frequently and was running out of that quickly. Now this means we have to conserve computer use as well as share it between us, until we get a better transformer.
To watch the Duck’s game through his sling box Gary had to put the transformer in the freezer after the first quarter. He turned the computer off and then plugged it in that way. He waited awhile and then turned the computer on for the last 15 minutes on the clock of the game. The transformer lasted about 5 minutes with the computer turned on. The computer had charged enough though to last past the end of the game. He was hopeful to see Oregon only 2 points behind at that point. That hope was soon gone.
The transformer can handle recharging the computer when it is off, so that is what we are doing with it at night or when we leave for a long walk.
It was great to have warm water again today!
No comments:
Post a Comment