Hydro rage

I have a bone to pick with the City of Toronto/Toronto Hydro/Electrical Safety Board. Related agencies, right?

I choose to live downtown in my tiny house on my tiny lot with 2 feet of access space between adjacent houses. That being said, must I be punished at every turn for my choice? Can the city not see that there are circumstances where a little freaking flexibility might be in order?

It all started with my insurance company humping my leg over my 60 amp service. It's served me well in the 9 years I've lived there and I've never even blown a fuse. OK, there's the annoying switch you have to throw to choose between the AC or the dryer, but really, how often do I have to do that? Minimal inconvenience. They decided it wasn't good enough. I did have the option of getting a letter from my electrician saying it was OK, but she said with great authority that she'd tried that and never had an insurance company accept it. (In retrospect it probably would have been worth a shot, but I took her advice.) I opted to upgrade to 100 amp service.

Simple, eh? Ha. This involves running a new line from the street, getting a new meter, and getting a new panel. The glory that is Toronto Hydro comes out and does a locator service to tell me where the acceptable locations for the new meter are. (This started in Feb - I called them and after they didn't show in the requisite 5 days called again only to discover they were in the midst of checking every ground plate in the city so no more dogs, or - god forbid - children, would be electrocuted. Waited until mid March and enquired again. Of course now they had no record of my original request so they had to put in a NEW order, did so but went to the wrong address and of course instead of the dude walking two doors up and doing the right house, they send ANOTHER guy out 5 days later. So, 2 months later…) Hydro gives me two options, one of which turns out to be at forehead height at the front of the alley, and the other, on my front porch, is ILLEGAL. WTF? Why does Hydro not know the electrical code? I am truly gobsmacked.

My neighbours and I had discussed the situation and decide the alley was fine as long as it was not at head bonking height. I arrived home yesterday to find it, or course, at head bonking height. After much teeth gnashing, hair pulling and shirt rending, I called the electrician and basically said WTF? Not only is she a master electrician but she must be part therapist as well. I ranted and raved about the stupidity of the entire system and she took it calmly, explained why this was the only option (several times) and commiserated. Turns out getting it on the porch would have been a logistical nightmare, expensive, and they probably wouldn't have approved it anyway.

I got that sick feeling I used to get when I was a kid and had done something colossally stupid and was going to have to fess up, except as a kid I really just tried to weasel out of it (I was an evil child). I have discovered as a grown up it's much better to confess, apologize and see what you can do to make it better. The sick feeling goes away much faster. Still, I had to slink over to the neighbour's and tell them the story. Amanda was SO great. She took one look and said, hey whatever. We live in this part of the city, it's all part of life. I would have had her love children at that point. (Her husband, or her brother who walks down the alley to the basement, might have been less pleased but they are all so lovely I doubt they'll hold a grudge for long).

I haven't even been down to the basement to look. I'm just going to cross my fingers, keep my head down, and hope it gets finished today (yeah, the first electrical panel was defective - only in my world).

Now I just need to finish the porch railing. This weekend, I swear.

Oh, and I have another date. A "dating" date. Chekov, meet Natasha.