I have been profoundly proud of my she-shed recently. I have added more shelves and hooks, constantly finding ingenious ways to hang stuff up and my much used and loved collection of tools are all organized for the first times in their rusty lives. I often wonder in there and gaze around to appreciate it. To those of you who don’t know the joy of a decent shed then skip this paragraph. To the left is the ‘working’ section – the well pump, the pressure tank, various filters, the golf cart charger and the emergency generator. Straight ahead are all my tools and to the right is the washer and the solar system. It’s a simple system with a couple of boxes I am forever forgetting the names of and a battery and some wires.
Picture this then, I am standing in the doorway listening out for a beep that I could hear but didn’t recognize. After a couple more beeps I realize that it is the bigger of the two boxes (an inverter I am told), so I lean in and switch it off – there is a handy little on/off switch on top. It keeps beeping. Mmmmm. Not quite sure what to do now so I ran inside to grab the phone to call the solar guy and ask him. Its only a dozen steps away but as I turn back towards the shed there is a loud bang. Wowser – Holy Bunions Batman! Now what?
I bravely go in and check it out at the same time as Mr Solar answers the phone to listen to my slightly panicked barrage of questions. Very calmly, he says I should switch off the battery. It’s the first battery I ever had that you could switch off so that was a new one for me. Next, he said take off the red lead. I am a bit terrified of electric and getting a shock, but he says its ‘low voltage’ so I wouldn’t get ‘much’ of a shock. I am not really consoled, but I am stuck with not having a choice, so I do that.
He was right, no shock and I begin to relax. We have a conversation about what could have caused all the excitement when there is another big pop and a spluttering bang and some smoke curls out of the top of it. We agree that it is now officially dead and we need a new one.
Hanging up, I glance back to see a very discomboobilated looking gecko stagger out from the unit. It literally shakes its head, pauses, looks around and makes it weary way off to a quieter part of town. I don’t know how it survived. I am now googling “How to claim compensation from a gecko” to no avail. Although, interestingly, there is a lot of Geico stuff coming up. It is at least of some comfort that there is a reason they use the gecko for their insurance advertising. I get it ……. now.
I should credit Season 2 of Batman and Robin in 1966 for the Bunions quote. Catwoman captures Batman and Robin in a room with a red hot floor. Yes, peeps you were reminded of that here, happy days when life was simple.
Corner Casa - Caye Caulker 