Plus and Minus

I like to be optimistic and stay positive. I consider myself a clear thinker; clearly I’m not, but I like to think I am. When given a set of circumstances where a problem is to be solved I am confident in my ability to examine the options, consider the possible outcomes, and choose the best solution available.

But when I am in a hurry and there are only two possible choices and I have some, albeit limited, knowledge of the problem at hand, I will guess and get on to the next thing. Guessing or assuming based on incomplete information is bad form and is usually punished.

As a public service please allow me to let you in on a little secret. Just as you cannot judge a book by its cover, you cannot judge the charge of an electrical wire based only on its color.

AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current) are too confusing for the average person to grasp without getting electrocuted. One is for the house; one is for the car, and when you combine both you get a pretty good rock band from Australia.

It gets even more confusing. On the DC side of the things red is positive and black is negative. In the unfriendly world of AC, the black wire is hot (not to be confused with positive), and the white is neutral (not negative).

Last fall, thinking I was being smart, I disconnected the battery from the camper and brought it (the battery, not the camper) into the house for safekeeping and an occasional charge. We got a slow start on the camping season this year, so last week on the night before we were supposed to leave I reconnected the battery, only stopping briefly to consider the colors of the wires.

Having jump-started dozens of cars and trucks over the last forty years, I was used to black and red wires for car batteries, but I only had black and white to work with on the camper. So instead of crawling underneath the camper and following the wires to wherever they may lead, I concluded that black must be negative because it always is with a car battery, and the folks at the camper factory must have run out of red wire and grabbed a length of white instead.

Unfortunately, I chose unwisely – I connected the positive wire to the negative post, and the negative wire to the positive post; I got my wires crossed and reversed polarity.  When that happens things get damaged and they won’t work properly. Who knew? Fuses blew, power was lost, trailer brakes locked up and wouldn't release, and I thought I my camping days were over.

With some adjustments we were able to salvage a weekend trip and visit some county fairs, and not once did my wife call me stupid; she could have – but why state the obvious?  As I have told my son, Nathan, and now my son-in-law, Adam, “I do these things so you don’t have to.”

When we got back into town I brought the camper to Noble RV, where they fixed the camper, and in true professional form, they politely ignored the opportunity to call me names and tease me. It all worked out, and I was able to maintain my positive outlook, even when things got negative.