LA_MERC_Sabre
November 10th, 2005, 11:26 AM
Well....
So I'm on my way to coach my hockey team (7,8,9 yr olds) at the local ice rink when Wendy (my wife) calls me on the cell. I'm about to get on the interstate so I'm slightly irritated that I have to answer the phone while trying to merge onto I-10 in Houston traffic......I say "hello" and she says "hey"....at this point I can tell already that there is something wrong in her voice. She never just says "hey". So I'm getting ready for abuse by way of cell phone when she tells me something completely unexpected. She says "I just heard a buzzing sound and the lights flickered a bit". So i'm thinking that the air conditioner just fried on me which is not totally unexpected since it is getting old. I was just about to ask her if the A/C is still running and just then she tells me "I smell burnt rubber". OK....now I'm getting concerned...why would she smell burnt rubber inside the house if the A/C unit is outside??? hmmmm... I tell her to try to locate the source of the smell...she walks into the kids playroom and the light doesn't work...peculiar...the smell seems to be strong in that same room. So she gets a flash light (the kids barbie flash light because all of our regular ones have dead batteries) and she tells me that there is smoke coming out of the light fixture on the ceiling....doh! I tell her to hang up and call 9-1-1 now! She's like "are you serious? Maybe it's nothing"....I'm like...what! you smell burning rubber and you see smoke????....so she hung up and called 9-1-1. Apparently, the operator for 9-1-1 was not very personable and ended up hanging up on Wendy mid-conversation....Wendy being stubborn wouldn't call back because she was offended.
So I get home and she tells me about the incompetance of the 9-1-1 lady...but apparently she did get the address in their short conversation because the firetruck showed up 10 minutes later.
First thing I do is shut the breaker off going to that part of the house, and climb in the attic to see if there is any fire up there....no fire...I go into the play room and I can still smell the burning rubber (that smell doesn't go away quickly). I get the barbie flashlight (now I'm feeling like a real man) and notice that there is black soot all over the light fixture. So I take the bulbs out and find that the wires leading into the fixture were completely burned up. No connection exists between the wires and the fixture...can anyone guess what the problem was????
yup...100W bulbs in a 60W fixture...
We were really lucky this time, that nothing more serious happened....God was looking out for us...
moral of the story...don't be like me and ignore the rating of such equipment...being an engineer, my initial thoughts are/were...these things have safety factors, I don't need to worry about a 100W bulb....WRONG!!!!
play safe!
So I'm on my way to coach my hockey team (7,8,9 yr olds) at the local ice rink when Wendy (my wife) calls me on the cell. I'm about to get on the interstate so I'm slightly irritated that I have to answer the phone while trying to merge onto I-10 in Houston traffic......I say "hello" and she says "hey"....at this point I can tell already that there is something wrong in her voice. She never just says "hey". So I'm getting ready for abuse by way of cell phone when she tells me something completely unexpected. She says "I just heard a buzzing sound and the lights flickered a bit". So i'm thinking that the air conditioner just fried on me which is not totally unexpected since it is getting old. I was just about to ask her if the A/C is still running and just then she tells me "I smell burnt rubber". OK....now I'm getting concerned...why would she smell burnt rubber inside the house if the A/C unit is outside??? hmmmm... I tell her to try to locate the source of the smell...she walks into the kids playroom and the light doesn't work...peculiar...the smell seems to be strong in that same room. So she gets a flash light (the kids barbie flash light because all of our regular ones have dead batteries) and she tells me that there is smoke coming out of the light fixture on the ceiling....doh! I tell her to hang up and call 9-1-1 now! She's like "are you serious? Maybe it's nothing"....I'm like...what! you smell burning rubber and you see smoke????....so she hung up and called 9-1-1. Apparently, the operator for 9-1-1 was not very personable and ended up hanging up on Wendy mid-conversation....Wendy being stubborn wouldn't call back because she was offended.
So I get home and she tells me about the incompetance of the 9-1-1 lady...but apparently she did get the address in their short conversation because the firetruck showed up 10 minutes later.
First thing I do is shut the breaker off going to that part of the house, and climb in the attic to see if there is any fire up there....no fire...I go into the play room and I can still smell the burning rubber (that smell doesn't go away quickly). I get the barbie flashlight (now I'm feeling like a real man) and notice that there is black soot all over the light fixture. So I take the bulbs out and find that the wires leading into the fixture were completely burned up. No connection exists between the wires and the fixture...can anyone guess what the problem was????
yup...100W bulbs in a 60W fixture...
We were really lucky this time, that nothing more serious happened....God was looking out for us...
moral of the story...don't be like me and ignore the rating of such equipment...being an engineer, my initial thoughts are/were...these things have safety factors, I don't need to worry about a 100W bulb....WRONG!!!!
play safe!