i woke up this morning at 5am hearing a 'tap, tap, tap' sound. murray woke up too and said, what was that? i got out of bed figuring the cats were into something but i'd better check. i heard the tapping coming from bedroom #2 which is now my computer room. the little cat was cowering and the big cat, well, he's too fat to move, lol.

i walked into the room looking for the sound and fortunately reacted properly when i saw a spark and what looked to be a flame shoot out of one of our power strips. immediately pulled the plug and the the spark/flame immediately flashed out.

the power strip was older but there were only 2 plugs in it. it was not overloaded by us. it gave no warning like the power light flashing.

i keep thinking how lucky we were that we both woke up and i went to check as quickly as i did (only because i wake up faster than murray does). what would have happened if we had not been home?

murray is back asleep for a few more minutes and i am sitting here wondering if our tv, dish box or outlet have been fried. i guess murray will check that when he gets up. i'm going to just sit here trying to stop shaking.

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Wow, that was a close one. I'm going to check my power strips here, maybe replace a few just for good measure. Thanks for the warning.

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Sherry -

I'm starting to wonder about your luck lately. Good thing the
cats alerted you (yeah kitties!). But I must ask - have you
pissed off a voodoo woman lately? LOL!

Hang in there!!!

Liz

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My Pets and Rescues
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the cloud hanging over our heads seems very very large at the moment.

did i mention that it scared the cat so much who was sleeping a few feet from it that she ran in our room and barfed on the sheet?

murray is checking every power strip in the house today and we will replace any older ones.

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yes, please check all power strips. as i just wrote to liz, we are doing the same thing. any that are older are leaving us within the next 24 hours.

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OMG-I can give you another piece of advise in regards to "electrical" dangers. Ladies-unplug your blow dryer and curling irons when you are done using them.
A house in my neighborhood burned to the ground last year because of a blow dryer. Also, have a friend that works in the insurance business and she tells me all of the time about house fires that are started by the use of those nice smelling frangrance plugins (Glade, Wizard) and others that get over-heated and cause fires. Throw them out!!!!

think we need to create a safety thread that has nothing to do with vacations?

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Well...If you have a dark cloud over you...there must be an Angel near by.

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Dan & Sweet Georgene

Dan, you have a way of saying the nicest things. I was torn between making some quip about black cats or lightning strikes. Your comment was a lot better than what I would have come up with.

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Dan -

That is nice. Wish I could come up with stuff like that!!!

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dan, i really need that angel since that black cloud is spreading. i got fios yesterday... telephone, internet, tv. was all excited. 3 hours later was no longer excited since i had no telephone, internet or tv. they just got it up and running again.

i'm afraid to think what is going to happen next.

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Okay - enough is enough. Everyone band together and send
Sherry and Murray "happy thoughts". I might even try to
make a voodoo shrine for good mojo for you!!!!

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I send my happy thoughts to Sherry & Murray. They been through it all. I can't see anything left for them to go through. Except the good.

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I'M IN ARUBA Dec. 16-Jan. 16



28 days - April 1-28

Aruba since 1985

thank you to both liz's! i need some of those good vibes. i just looked up the character in l'il abner that had the cloud over his head. people have been comparing murray and i with him lately, lol... http://www.lil-abner.com/familyalbum2.html ... maybe the good thoughts will help us get past the worst luck we have had in a long long time. i told verizon today that it started with problems with them and i hope it has stopped with problems with them.

the good news is fios is great now that we can actually use it. they also gave us a little money off the monthly bills thru the contract to make up for the problems.

now, do i sit here and wait for the next thing to happen or go about my business for 30 minutes until it does?

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I don't know Sherry, but I don't think I'd want to go anywhere with you for awhile......

But speaking of dangerous things - a couple of months ago I was awakened by this loud pop/explosion noise. I also thought my cats had gotten into something and my initial reaction was to roll back over - but thankfully I got up. Both cats were on the sofa, quaking in their boots, looking into the dining room. I had (had is the operative word here) a 20 gallon saltwater aquarium in there with an external filter/skimmer. The heater was in the external filter and it had exploded and the heating coil was laying on the carpet. And it never tripped the power strip or the circuit breaker.

If I had not gotten up, it would have surely started the carpet on fire, as it had already scorched it. And it was a complete mess - there was fried fish crap and soot all over the walls and ceiling and water everywhere. I yanked the plug and got some towels and wiped down the tank and the filter and water was still dripping. The filter was made of a very thick acrylic and the explosion had actually starred and cracked the acrylic and water was leaking out of the bottom of it.

I then discovered the water had dripped onto the ballast for the lighting system and had fried that as well. So here I was half asleep, cleaning the soot and fish crap off the walls and ceiling.

I then noticed I was getting quite warm, so I went to turn up the A/C and the thermostat (which was positioned above the tank) was blank and had a yellow and green light on it and would not reset, even when I switched the breaker off and back on. So then I had to call the A/C guys, who came right out (thank God for service plans!) and discovered fried fish crap and water inside the thermostat, which had also fried. Unfortunately, the service plan does not cover a thermostat being fried by fried fish crap....so it cost me $150 for a new one.

Fortunately, I was already having the carpeting pulled out and hardwood flooring being put in the following week, so the scorched carpet wasn't an issue. But when the guys came to move the 120 gallon in preparation for that, I told them what had happened and they asked if it was a VisiTherm heater, which it was - they said that was the 4th one they'd heard of that had exploded in the past couple of weeks. I have a 120 gallon saltwater and a 55 gallon cichlid tank - both of which also had Visitherm heaters. I went out and bought titanium heaters for both of them that same day (these are metal tubes of titanium with an external thermostat - so they can't explode) - and my aquariums are now VisiTherm heater-free.

But the house reeked of fried electronics and fried fish crap for days!

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janet, we live about an hour from each other. we have to do one of two things...

1. stay far far apart for the safety of others or
2. join forces and infiltrate the forces of evil so they can catch our luck

then of course there is the third option. meet for lunch in rockville or gathersburg and plot the demise of the human race, lol.

actually, after listening to your story i consider myself lucky, hahahahaha.

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I think we probably could do any of these Sherry - I have many more stories to tell. I can never leave on a trip without a major appliance going fluky......

The latest was a business trip - leaving early Monday AM - threw laundry into my front-loader on Saturday and halfway through it died and the door wouldn't unlock - so all my clothes I needed to pack were being held hostage. I finally unplugged it, which unlocked the door, but when I opened it to retrieve my clothes, all the water poured onto my just washed floor.......

.....and many more......

And I think my housesitter is beginning to wonder - everytime she comes here something is broken!

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my disasters are based around holiday dinners, including one where i was cooking for 40 and my dishwasher was being repaired upside down in the middle of the kitchen floor with the guests coming in 4 hours. they moved it just in time for the guests but replaced it a few days after all the dishes needed washing.

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