I was aware that this could happen because ten years ago, while I was working in Kathy Solter\u00c3\u00ads kitchen , an electrician told me a similar story. And, I write knowing that shinydome will be sitting at his computer, shaking his head. <\/p>\n
A condo owner up the street asked me to install two bathroom fans. One with an attic above, the other without. I began with the easy fan, the one I could install from above. First, I flipped the fan switch on, listened to it whir, flipped it off, and heard it stop. I then climbed into the attic through the ceiling panel near the bathroom door. I located the fan and pried it off the ceiling joists. I tried to disconnect the electrical wire that powered the fan – except it wouldn\u00c3\u00adt budge. So what, <\/i>I thought, I\u00c3\u00adll cut through the wires with my snips. I\u00c3\u00adve done it before, and I had, after all, turned off the electricity.<\/p>\n
Let me pause and say, even without shinydome\u00c3\u00ads admonitions, I\u00c3\u00adm careful doing any kind of work that might put me on the other side of the grass. I shiver when I flashback to the live wires I cut through last winter. That\u00c3\u00ads why after I flip a switch or even a circuit breaker, I\u00c3\u00adll strip the black and white wires separately and then touch them together. No white flash means I\u00c3\u00adm safe to work. <\/p>\n
While I\u00c3\u00adm struggling with this wire, dust mask on, sweating in the hot attic, I hear the home owner walk up the steps, peer in the bathroom, and then retreat back down to his study. I assumed he was checking on my progress.<\/p>\n
I pulled out my wire cutters and because I\u00c3\u00adm the nervous nelly I claim to be, I clamped down slowly on the wire. Probably nothing would have happened : had I not been holding onto the blue steel body of the fan; had my wire cutters not been bare metal; had the condo owner not flipped the light and fan switch on as he peered into the bathroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was aware that this could happen because ten years ago, while I was working in Kathy Solter\u00c3\u00ads kitchen , an electrician told me a similar story. And, I write knowing that shinydome will be sitting at his computer, shaking … Continue reading