We went on vacation last week, and, apparently, the house is jealous of us spending money on ourselves. Which means: something had to break.

In this case, we thought it was the pool pump that went bad. It happens. Around here, it happens every three years or so. We expect it.

And we expect it when a storm blows in turning the pool to mud on the bottom and clogging the lines with leaves.

But this time was a little different. I could get the pump to start after flicking the on/off switch a few times. Which I did while I was out vacuuming the pool, emptying the skimmer basket, and backwashing after Monday night’s storm. Since it was 430 in the morning, I had the pool lights and the backyard floodlights on.

Then a strange thing happened. The lights went out.

And the next time I turned on the pool pump, I got a nice spark across the plastic cover.

Hmmm. I turned off the power to the pool and went to work, planning to inspect the lights, when I had light to see.

My daughter texted me that she had no power in the bedroom. Now, we have been getting rolling blackouts and the next text said it was back on, I didn’t really think much of it.

Until I got home and the weather cooled down enough for me to go outside without electrocuting myself courtesy of my own sweat. I double checked that the power was out then inspected the wiring of the pump. One line was charred and looked like it had worked loose. I clipped it, re-stripped it, and tightened it into place.

The pump came on with no problems.

Then I checked the connections for the lights. Nothing loose. So we tested them again.

This is where the hubbinator noticed bubbles coming from the light in the spa. Electricity and water were mixing and not in a good way. And guess what, it tripped the breaker that powers my daughter’s room.

Currently, the spa is being drained of water and because it is attached to the pool, so is the pool. I’ll be looking for a closed eyeball when I go to the pool shop today.

I’m still not sure if the pump is good, but it is running.

So, I’m gonna focus on repairing that light. Wish me luck!

Until next time.