Electrical Poltergeist Activity

On Sunday morning at about quarter to 7, the doorbell went. And went again. Donald had gotten up and was throwing on his robe when it went again. No one was at the door and so, as the "bing-bong, bing-bong" continued, Donald concluded that an electrical short was causing the problem. We've had so much rain lately, after months and months of very little rain, that we suspect the dampness is the problem. Lo and behold when Donald got around to reading the paperwork that came with the cordless/remote-control doorbell and receiver, it says it won't work properly if it gets too damp and that it isn't "for outdoor use." A doorbell???Not for outdoor use??? Come on! Anyway, Donald tried putting it back up on Sunday afternoon and it was okay for a while, then started the "bing-bong-ing" again so he took it down. Monday morning he put it back up and a couple of hours later, it went again so I took it down. Today Don will take it back to the shop in Crieff where we bought it. (Remember we bought this kind of doorbell because of the problem with wiring up the electrical type.)

Then yesterday afternoon, after I had taken a load of clothes out of the dryer and put the second of four loads in to dry, the dryer wouldn't go. Don and I tried everything we could think of and nothing worked. It was raining so nothing could go on the line. I phoned someone who has a dryer just like ours to see if they had any tips for us or, failing that, if we could bring the laundry over there, but they were out of town. So I draped the most crucial laundry for the trip over the drying rack and radiators. All afternoon I kept testing the clothes and turning them, but it was a slow process. By the time I got home from chorus rehearsal last night, some items were nearly dry and I could move some away and add some new items. By this morning, the heavy socks were dry and other items were well on their way.

As it was sunny and dry out this morning, I pegged the remaining items out on the line. It is looking quite threatening out there now, 3 hours later, so I have brought everything in and now various pieces are back on the drying rack and radiators. Almost all items we'll need to pack for our trip are dry now so we'll make it through. The thing is, when we return a week from Wednesday, it will be late (the plane doesn't even get back to Edinburgh until after 10 pm! The next day we'll need to wash and dry all our clothes quickly as our guest will be arriving in the afternoon on Thursday. Not sure how we'll deal with this as we don't have time now to get a service call. Oh well, maybe it will be sunny on that Thursday!

Meanwhile, I have finished a small wall quilt to take to Madame Taylor along with a few Scottish items as hostess gifts. All I need to do is hand-sew the hanging sleeve on the back which won't take 20 minutes. We had a phone call this morning from the woman who is organizing us for the trip to Cognac. She said fog is predicted in the Edinburgh area for tomorrow morning so we will be leaving Comrie at 5 instead of 5:30. Tomorrow will be a l-o-o-n-n-g day. We won't arrive in Bordeaux until 4:30 tomorrow afternoon (if there are no delays) and then it's another two-and-a-half hours to Cognac. But we'll be in good company as there are 25 of us all in this together.

The blog will take an 8- or 9-day break this time, but I look forward to telling you all about our experiences in France and sharing some more gorgeous photos with you.

Au revoir!