Touched by Tesla

Mark is the one smart enough to come up with this title. I apologize if it gives away the ending...

What with the weather perking back up and my becoming a pampered chef consultant and busy weekends, I've been (often) purposely avoiding my attic. It's dirty, right? Well, yesterday seemed just right for installing the lights. I needed to wash my hair before dance class, so crawling through this:

 It actually seemed somewhat reasonable; it looks much bigger than it is. I had to crawl to the back to grab the lighting wire I had shoved through a small hole. The blurry stuff at the top of the picture is shouldn't-be-loose, hanging bits of insulation.What's on the other side of the wire?

This. It's burnt insulation from the previous light fixture. It breaks apart and falls on your face with great ease.

And after 2 hours of figuring out how to hold this thing in place (balance it on my head) while I screw & hammer into the 4 suspension locations, this recessed lighting can is in place--essentially and hopefully for good. Hammering is not a forte of mine. Then again, neither is seeing through filthy safety glasses.

At one point, I had dropped a screw and had only one point secured of the 4 required to be able to let go. ok...I have a 5 1/2 foot wingspan and I need to be able to bend down and pick up that screw while still holding up the fixture. The one bit of metal that was secured to the ceiling ripped apart on its way down to the ground. I decided then and there to keep several nails and screws in my pocket for this project; and then I dropped the hammer. RRRRRRR!

Never ever ever did I think I would feel relieved to see this:

The outlet box where the light switch goes.
That's a lot of wires! I'm usually pretty good at putting wire configurations back together if I have a good recollection of what the box previously looked like. I wasn't far off. All the white needed to go together, the two outlet blacks needed to go together, the ground wires attach to each other, and the lighting black wires get pigtailed to the light switch. Sure. Can do! The breaker switch labeled "ATTIC VENT FAX" was off, so I was ready to go. This goes here, those over there... uh huh... now I just need to grab all these white ones and put them together in the little red twisty-cap thing.

AAAH! OUCH! WOAH!

My body completed the circuit and my shoulder and my teeth with metal fillings felt it. Apparently, the proper breaker to switch was that which was labeled "Dining Room." Hm... That's on the other side of the house. It should be labeled "Living Room, Entry Way, Attic."

Could this have been avoided? Absolutely. My dad has this nifty electric-field-detector-thingy that looks like a giant crayon. All you have to do is hold it up to an outlet and it beeps and flashes if there's power there. I'm a huge fan of it and have used it several times, but I couldn't find it and didn't want to wait. Woops. I don't think I"ll ever do any electrical work without it ever again. In fact, I think I'm going to buy myself one. That would be wise.

But wait: the situation got worse! 

 After Mark helped me find the "Dining Room" switch, we celebrated by flipping the light switch at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the attic. The very light switch which acts as a regulation standard second connection to the outlet box up in the attic which I had just operated on. Just a fun little ON, OFF to show that it works. Well, I did not know that light switches are part dragon. Apparently it "arked." The switch actually blew fire as it started flipping up and down by itself.

Here is the "Outlet of Fire" and that shiny stuff just north west of the tip of the screw driver is, from what we could figure, Mercury. I really hope this is going to be a quick fix of simply replacing the light switch. But of course, I can't help but wonder, "How much is this incident going to cost?"

What did I do wrong here? Something about both switches being set to ON or something. I really should get a professional to help me this time around. But I'm not paying anyone. Heck no! I can do this! trial and error, baby. Or education by error, anyway. (Dad's business partner, Dom, said he'd check out my lighting if I wanted. He's out of town this week, but I'll be chatting with him soon.)

The other project with this lighting has to do with the light bulb holding structure within the can. It is currently hanging freely. It's supposed to be secured. I need to figure out how.

Cool Trivial Fact Mark Taught Me:

Thomas Edison showed people the "dangers" of Nikola Tesla's electricity by electrocuting them. As amazing as Tesla's method is, I think it's safe to say that's why Edison won the popularity contest...beside the fact that Tesla went crazy.