So THAT was the problem!

We live in a house that has an old-fashioned fuse box, not the circuit breaker type. For a couple of days, about two weeks ago, our electricity started to turn on and off every few hours. When we went home to Laguna to vote and stayed there overnight, we forgot about it.

The night we came back, the blasted problem escalated. At around 1 a.m., all our lights and appliances went off when hubby turned on the air conditioner. He checked the fuse box and said one fuse, the one for the air con, was piping hot and has to be replaced. So off he went to a 24-hour convenience store confident he'll find what he needed. Meanwhile, I had to fan the kids like crazy so they could sleep despite the overwhelming heat.

Still, despite the the McGyver tactics hubby tried, the electricity won't turn on. We ended up perspiring the whole night and unable to sleep. In the morning, with headaches and all, we called an electrician who was able to fix the problem -- loose connections in the fuse box.

However, early yesterday morning, the power started turning on and off, on and off again; this time from stretches of a minute or two to around 30 minutes to one hour per cycle. Hubby was at work so I asked my eldest son to go fetch the electrician after we ate lunch. The handyman said he can't find anything wrong with the fuse box and advised me to report the matter to Meralco instead. He suspected a problem in the electric cable outside.

By that time, I was already in despair as I have article deadlines to beat and my kids were getting cranky from the heat. So I called up the Meralco hotline and requested they send somebody ASAP. I was pleasantly surprised to have two linemen appear at our front gate that same afternoon (with PLDT, it most often takes days and numerous calls before they send someone over).

One of them opened the meter and voila! There were components inside that are already burned out! I didn't ask anymore if that might have caused a fire. Too scary to even think about! It took the men about half an hour to replace the parts, close the meter and reconnect the main cable to the Meralco post. Despite the continuous rise in our electric bill these past four months, I will concede that Meralco earned some plus points from me yesterday for the swift action.

I just hope the weather becomes cooler soon and that we get to pay a lower amount for our electric consumption next month.