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Naperville
Friday, March 29, 2024

Ed’s Many Hats – Murphy’s Law

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I don’t know of anyone or anything that likes power outages—except Murphy, our cat. They can be one of the most inconvenient situations a household has to experience. In our case it’s a double whammy. When our electricity goes off, so does our well that supplies our water. You city folk never lose your water without prior notice. How nice…

Photo_2-_Brand_Bobosky_received_Rotary's_Rita_Harvard_Lifetime_Achievement_Award
Ed Channell imitates art with Brand Bobosky.

You don’t realize how much you depend on electricity until you have none. You suddenly can’t do all the simple things you take for granted; like reading the paper in your favorite easy chair, can’t make coffee or tea, most Internet and Wi-fi systems go dead unless you have a battery standby system. Even if you do, as we do, you’ll probably find that all the components connected to the Internet aren’t plugged into the same box. Murphy’s Law.

We recently had a power outage and my wife, Kathy, turned it into lemonade. As I was frantically trying to find a flashlight that worked so I could see to plug all the Internet components into the main box, she was casually lighting colorful candles and putting them around the house.

After I gave up on the battery standby fiasco, I plopped down in a chair in total disgust.

Kathy said, “Isn’t it wonderful that we can finally spend the evening together without all the interruptions we face daily.”

She went on, “We never get to sit down in peace and quiet and enjoy each other’s company anymore. Look how beautiful the candles make the house look, Ed. I’ll use the grill to make us a wonderful candlelight, Pinot Noir romantic dinner and serve it on our best china in the dining room.”

All of a sudden I hoped the electricity would stay off all night.

Dinner was progressing beautifully, just as Kathy had described it would. We were just getting ready for the Oreo Blizzard when all of a sudden every light, radio and TV in the house came on full volume. It scared the stuffing out of us.

Kathy looked at me with disappointment washing over her face.

“Oh, I was having beautiful flashbacks to our dating years and how nice you were back then,” she smiled.

“Hold on, honey, I have an idea. Don’t move,” I instructed her.

I went down to the breaker box and pulled the MAIN switch to off. It sure was a wonderful night. Try it.

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Ed Channell
Ed Channell
Ed Channell has served on many boards, foundations and fundraising campaigns during more than 50 years in Naperville—and he loves feedback. Give it to him at echannell1@gmail.com.

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