Holding the Braincell

 There are days when it feels like I'm the only one holding the braincell at work. 

Which kinda sucks when today is my day off and I'm not even AT WORK. 

But at least my coworkers had enough thought to text the group chat to be like "Heeeeyy problem." 

So that I was able to actually help them fix it from home....rather than coming in to the disaster waiting for me tomorrow none the wiser.

So at least communication was used which is really great actually.

As communication from anyone that isn't me is...spotty on a good day.

In any case.

There was an issue behind our fish wall...where during a water change of the Iso Tank...some flooding happened.

Said flooding happened to short out the power strip powering like...the entire fish tank.

And while they replaced the power strip...the associate working couldn't get anything to turn on after replacing everything. 

So they were like "Hey, heads up. This isn't working. Someone smarter than me will need to fix it because like...I don't know what to do. The cord isn't working and it's new so I think it's a problem with the wall outlet." 

And like....it would make sense if water was flooding the power strip that it would trip something and make it so the wall outlet wasn't working.

Which is kinda a big deal....because that same wall outlet is also the outlet that powers the overstock fridge/freezer we have behind the fish wall. And that would be rather .... Bad if everything in there thawed overnight.

Luckily for them...I've encountered this particular issue more than a few times over the years.

So I was like "Have you pressed the red reset button on the wall outlet?" 

Because that particular outlet has one of those buttons that can trip and cut off power to the outlet and you fix it by pressing the red button and basically resetting it. 

It's knowledge that's known...but also isn't something known if you've never had to press it before.

Plus like....my coworkers aren't always the most .... observant.

But luckily that was the issue and pressing the red button got the outlet and therefore the new power strip to work. So yay! 

But then a little bit later another text came through the group chat to be like "Heeey....parts of the fish tank still aren't working." Namely the filter. 

Which the filter is kinda the most important part.

And like. It could be likely that something further shorted out with the electronics themselves with all the water that ruined the first power strip.

But I thought the issue would be something else.

As the associate had sent a picture of the ruined power strip when giving us the first heads up that it wasn't working.

And that power strip.....has half of it's outlets on a timer and half of them on an on/off switch.

It's mostly used so you can set up like day/night cycles for reptiles with the lightbulbs but if there's things that need to be on constantly or switched off occasionally you could control it on the other side.

But there's also --after investigating in a separate incident...I think involving a customer who had questions about said power strip-- I also discovered that you could turn off the timer setting and have the entire power strip just be on the on/off setting. 

So I was like "Well....if the replacement strip is the same as in the picture....the filter is probably on the timer side of the outlets as half of them are timed and half of them are not but there should be a switch on the side that fixes that." 

And I was right.

Fixed the issue. Again. 

*exhales*

It does make me wonder if people just don't have the critical thinking skills any more. To solve the issue.

But at the same time....I also don't know how clear of a solution that solution actually would be....like it was pretty clear to me both times....but that's because I've had experience both times with the problems....I'm sure the first time around I was just as clueless...but I did end up fiddling around to try and find solutions and such.

Still. I'm grateful at least that my coworkers reached out at least let us know about the issue so that we were able to fix it today rather than leaving it for me to figure out tomorrow morning. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi