Sometimes shit happens

Sometimes shit happens. And some times its like you jumped head first into a septic tank.
Today was like that.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went out to the farm last night. And that story is going to have to wait until Sunday's THR post. And I have pictures this time!
But back at the rental house in town, we've been having some problems. Our lights occasionally flicker, sometimes get very bright, sometimes very dim.
Now, I'm a pretty fair electrician, and the last time we had a problem, it was a short in a wall socket. No big deal. Pulled it out of the wall, found the wire with the short, wrapped it in three times too much electrical tape, shove it back in, screw it down tight. All fixed.
THIS time, I have been fucking with every socket, light fixture, AC unit, and who knows what else, trying to isolate the problem. My microwave, radio alarm clock, and three surge protectors have given their all while I fucked with the problem.
I came home tonight, rather than spend another night at the farm, because Rose called and told me it had gotten REALLY bad. Lights going on and off, bright, dim. She'd unplug something, and something else would go weird on her.
So finally I did what I shoulda in the first place. Started metering the fuse box. Every other one was 150 volts, then 90 volts, then 150 then 90 (+/- six volts or so) with a solid 243 volts coming into the box.

My fucking ground to the electrical post out back in the alley was broke! Apparently, a branch had broken in my neighbor's tree and was beating on it repeatedly in the wind. It eventually broke, which is why Rose had so many problems while I was out on the farm last night.

At least this was a problem for the electric company, and I didn't have to pay for the repairs.
Which is good, considering I stay in a constant state of broke!

So here it is, 10:45 PM on Thursday night. Electric company truck just left, and I'm waiting for the house to cool down now that I can run the AC again.

Been a LONG day, folks. Fuck it, it'll cool down without me. I'm going to bed.