Thursday, January 19, 2012

That Was Exciting

So there I was last night , putting potatoes into the oven, looking forward to nice, brown roasted potatoes to go with my hamburger patty when KAPOW! FLASH!  And the electricity went off.  I thought I'd been shot. But, why would my stove be shooting at me?

It was dark enough in my apartment to warrant fumbling around to find my flashlight.  Then, I had to find the number for the office.  It was after hours, but I knew someone would be on call.  I explained my problem to the manager and he sent maintenance down right away.  He was there long enough to flip all the switches necessary to turn the lights back on, and determined hat the oven was the cause of the outage, but couldn't figure out what was wrong with said oven.  He promised to come back first thing in the morning and try to fix it.

He was as good as his word.  He returned at about 9:30 a.m. and after clanking and clunking around, he said, "Well, I'm going to have to make it go bang again, so I can see where the flash comes from."  As I put my fingers in my ears, he turned the oven on again, and KAPOW! FLASH! No lights, again.  He got the lights back on and pulled the oven out of its slot, found the wire that caused all the trouble.  Then he said, "I have good news and bad news and good news again.  The good news is I found the wire and fixed it. The bad news is the oven's thermostat is now toast. The other good news is you're going to get a new stove.  It will probably take about a week to get it. You won't be able to use this oven unless you want to cook everything at 500 degrees, but the stove top will work just fine."

See, this is the beauty of apartment complex living.  On-site maintenance shows up right away, night or day, in situations that demand immediate action.  Whatever appliance that gives up the ghost is examined and if it can't be fixed, you get a new one.  Free.

Sure beats cleaning it.

Stay tuned.

10 comments:

Grayquill said...

Gee, that does sound like good living. You have good managers or.....did they cross you once and found out that sharp stick was way to painful. :-) This might keep up tonight wondering about this.
Congrats on the new stove and I am glad you are safe!

Betty said...

Grayquill: I have lived here for about 12 years, and never regretted selling my house and moving here. Just lucky, I guess.

Margie's Musings said...

But what do you do for a garage, Betty? My car has been destroyed once by a hailstorm. The one I have now is 11 years old. I couldn't afford another.

At least here at home, I have a garage.

Arkansas Patti said...

Think I will go slap a for sale sign in my yard and find a place to rent.
How nice.

Betty said...

Margie: I have learned to live with a car that looks like rolling rustbucket. I plan to drive it until it refuses to go any more because I can't afford another one, either.

Ark. Patti: I recommend it, even without a garage. lol

Galla Creek said...

Betty, sounds like you live the good life to me.

Darlene said...

I do see the advantages of apartment living. My experiences as a home owner dealing with handymen (?) almost has me convinced to sell the sucker and move to a rental.

Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be) I love my home and would miss it. Just one of life's dilemmas.

Betty said...

The downside is the management hasn't seen fit to repaint or even clean the carpets in the past 12 years. And they won't let me do it myself.

Darlene: For some reason, I never "bonded" with my house. I bought it after my divorce, and it was only because at the time, there were not many decent rental houses or apartments in town. So, I didn't mind leaving that old money pit. lol

Big John said...

I think that I would blow up my cooker EVERY time it needed cleaning. :-)

Betty said...

Big John: I'm trying to figure out how I can make the refrigerator blow up, now. lol