Comic Electrician

I had a nice bit of comedy occurring during my wiring project this evening.  

I had to get into the bathroom and put some finishing touches on the wiring so I could finish laying the floor on Saturday. I had to connect up a couple of power lines that go to outlets. Those outlets, and the main power into the room had to be connected to outlet receptacles that had GFCI, which stands for God Forsaken Current Inhibitor. 

I shut off the circuit breaker to the bathroom (Number 26) and began the task of completing my connections. I then attached the GFCI receptacles. Upon turning the power on, I had power to a couple of my receptacles, but no power coming in to the GFCI that sends a load to the light switch. It's my main power line. The lights and fan are attached to that line.

I checked my connections, tested it with my little outlet tester, all the while going up and down the stairs every time I checked a connection. And still no power to my light switch.

At one point, I realized I had hooked up the outlet wrong, putting the black wires on the silver connectors and the white wires on the brass connectors. It wasn't my lack of attention as much as it was my inability to distinguish brass from silver.

Finally, after several trips up and down the stairs. I rechecked the main connection where a bundle of wires are connected. Do you think I found a loose wire? So do I!!!

I got the connection back to good and solid, all the while swearing up a storm and sweating as if I was in one, and guess what...it all worked.

I could have saved myself about an hour of anguish and swearing if I had used my multi-meter. But I've misplaced it, just like I do with all my tools. 

I really need to conduct a study about the amount of time I waste looking for tools.