I have been involved with wiring for one different reason or
another for many years. I have a healthy
respect for the wires which bring conveniences to the house.
In Costa Rica
there is a different view. While we were
waiting at the church on Saturday for someone to come to go to San Jose, I looked around at specifics of
some of the older buildings, and I was appalled at the callous way wires were
attached and patched together. Large
higher voltage wires at the front of one building were open and dangling with
another connection jimmied onto it. I
wouldn’t be surprised with this type of wiring, that a person would need to keep a sharp watch
on their electrical bills because it wouldn’t be a lot of effort for someone
else to tap into the power of the neighbour.
The new houses are different.
They seem to be stand alone dwellings with probably better control of
their wiring.
We had a
unique experience this morning. While we
were away on Saturday, Rita came to the house with a technician and he
installed high speed internet service for us.
Melaney was delighted when we got home, and found this bonus. On Sunday, after church, she tried to use the
internet, and it gave her a message that the service was discontinued, that it
was good for only a 24 hour period. She
phoned Rita.
Rita and
another technician were at the house by 11 on Monday morning. That’s great.
He checked a few things, and went outside to check the incoming wiring
for the internet. It meandered through
several big mango trees. Alberto was
shimmied up into the diseased tree whacking the limbs off with a machete. We had been telling Rita that had to be done
for over two weeks. I was concerned that
whatever it was that was evident in the leaves would spread to the other trees
in the orchard. I wanted him to take it
and burn the limbs. I don’t know where
he put them. In the meantime, one of the
limbs grabbed the internet wire as it fell and sagged it almost to the
ground.
With the
help of a ladder, some wire cutters, a hammer and a stool, the internet
technician brought the wire up, almost taught, wrapped it around one of the
porch roof supports, fed it through a couple of plastic bands that were holding
the SKY TV wire, and fed the end through the window screen and into the house.
That should
have been the end of the story. It
wasn’t. In short order he said that he
needed 50,000 colones ($100) to go into town and pick up some equipment and
that he would come back with invoice. He
wasn’t sure what it would cost. Rita
took him back into town. We still have
wires all over the living room floor. I
will conclude this story later.
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