Yesterday was a day of frustration. First, after having dumped the ashes from my ash vac outside, I got locked outside after the sliding door latch managed to hook itself. The latch mechanism has been a pain in the ass for quite a while now (not wanting to lock when you want it to, and locking itself when you don’t). Fortunately, the wife was home or I’d have been out in the cold for who knows how long. So I pulled the latch out and looked at the Home Depot website, and they claimed to have latch mechanisms in stock that seemed to be pretty close to what I needed. Since I also needed some tubes for my shop lights (it’s getting a little dark down there) and a reducing bushing to get my spare sump pump ready to roll, I headed over there. Alas, the website lied and I was forced to order the part (and the guy says it’s gonna take two friggin’ weeks to get it). Plus, they didn’t have the bushing I needed. So I bought $40 worth of fluorescent light bulbs instead.<\/p>\n
If you’ve ever tried to replace the tubes in a 4′ fluorescent ceiling fixture, you know what a pain in the ass it can be (especially if you’re old and your shoulders hurt all the time – that working over your head shit is a hassle). Especially when you’re really trying to not push something the wrong way and have the bulb explode in your face. But I managed to get the new tubes in, and there was blessed light. For about 5 minutes, and then the damn thing flickered a few times and stayed off. <\/p>\n
So I tried another dead fixture. Same result (except for the part where it comes on even for a short time). OK, I decided, time to give up and work on project #3: rebuilding my pool pump motor. I got the motor and pump pulled apart, got the impeller off the shaft (which was more difficult than it should have been – especially working in less than ideal lighting conditions), and then proceeded to try and get the end bell off the motor. I tried tapping, beating, swearing, asking nicely, and beating some more. No dice. So I decided to give up on that one, too, lest I beat the thing so hard that I break something.<\/p>\n
I decided to go do my weekly shopping instead (freeing up my morning this morning for vegetating in front of the computer, doing laundry, and re-reading the story about Florida Gulf Coast University kicking the crap out of Georgetown. Hoya Saxa (Latin for one-and-done)! As the saying goes around here, “it’s 10:44 AM, and Georgetown still sucks.”<\/p>\n