I'm The Man

So sayeth Marilee.

This weekend was looking to be rather horrid if the air conditioner hadn't been operative.

After a startling discovery yesterday, the air conditioner here at the house is now again running.

Our air conditioner in the back yard looks thus:

Not terribly exciting in and of itself; that's the compressor in the foreground, and attached to the house is the infernal "PowerForward" box on the right, and "some other" box on the left. I'd never paid that second box much attention, just that is was "there". I figured it was the box that just terminated the outside load to the inside circuit breaker, since the breaker panel is directly behind that box on the inside of the house.

I was only partly right.

Yes, that is the termination between the air conditioner and the breaker panel, but hidden inside that box are two items of the electrical persuasion. Yes, dear readers, contained therein are two fuses.

Of the big-ass variety.

And one was blown.

Now, in my chosen profession, I know all too well that if a fuse blows, there must have been a reason. That the box is subjected to all sorts of environmental extremes from snow to rain and everything in between - there's no weather stripping or seals on the box - it's probably a miracle the fuses lasted as long as they did, let alone the bare copper contacts. So after a trip to Home Depot and returning with two packs of two fuses each, with trepidation I replaced them and what do you know. They held.

Before I'd left for Home Depot, and after telling Marilee that there was, indeed, a blown fuse, she asked if I wanted the $200 or so that it would have cost us to have someone from Rocky Mountain Power to replace the same fuse that had blown, plus the five bucks for the fuse, she exclaimed "YOU'RE THE MAN!".

Indeed.

Where's my $200?