Bad Karma: Part 3 - Nicht Licht

Das Fassmeister moved into the house while I was in the States. Shortly after her move in, the lights started failing. OK, not just failing, nearly catching fire. She comes home one night, flips on the switch and there was a loud BANG, a SNAP, everything went dark, and she was left to search our German house for the location of the breakers. When the Fassmeister found the breaker (again, I was not there) she flipped it, and BANG! SNAP!

Her quote "This is nicht gut."

Well being a degree holding electrical engineer she determines to not mess with 220V (it's not the volts its the amps) especially since it's not her house. Time to inform the landlord. So we called the landlord (got the husband this time) and, of course, he was very concerned. This is the natural response.

He calls the electrician and has him call her at work. We speak no German. Landlord knows this. He has him call us, but it's o.k. because apparently the electrician had an english friend when he was 15 so he's good.

Well, the electrician is actually pretty nice, knows decent English, and loves Barley. In fact, when he came in the house and saw Barley, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a dog treat. He carries dog treats in his pocket all the time. All the time. So, the electrician is unaware of the fass meisters extensive degrees in electrical engineering as she proceeds to tell him the circuit breaker is flipped. So he marches down and tries to reset the breaker - bang, sparks!

His response: "Oh! Das ist nicht gut."

So with the help of fass meister flipping the breaker and the treat toting electrician testing the sockets he isolates the faulty electrical box. "O.k. I will be leaving now" he says - umm are you coming back? Will you fix it? "oh yes, I must call your landlord, I have to order the part and the painter must come in". I'm sorry what was that last part? The painter? Well it's a little known fact that Germany has a very thriving labor union system. And well of course the electrician cannont actually remove the light fixture because that would cause some paint chipping and well that must be fixed by the painter. Umm o.k.

Next morning, phone rings, fass meister answers, rattling on in German, umm "nicht deutsch, sprekenze English?" "nein" Nicht gut. So fass meister figures out that someone is coming by tomorrow morning at 0900. But given this is the third day in a row when there have been people showing up to the house, she's not really concerned. A few hours later the treat carrying electrician calls her at work to confirm that it's the painter who is coming tomorrow at 0900 and he doesn't speak any english so the electrician is going to come too. "Will das hund be there" Of course and das hund is excited that you are coming by.

So the electrician and the painter show up. The painter removes the faulty outlet and repairs the wall. The electrician informs the fass meister that he will return when the part comes in.

He came to fix the light when I was back but the Fassmeister was gone. The day before she leaves, BANG! SNAP! Another recessed receptacle goes out. I was unaware of this new development, and the electrician came, fixed the existing receptacle problem and left. Now, he has to come back.

Nicht licht ist nicht gut.