What Do You Fix?

[mamselle]

Adds a dimension to the concept of "learned helplessness"...

M.

[clean]

I've taught my daughters that if they don't want to do something like mowing to just make the yard look really bad the first time they do it, and then the person who actually cares what the yard looks like will never let them mow again--or at least not for a long time. It's kind of like men and doing laundry.

Well, the joke would be on her!  IF she wants to mow the lawn, it will certainly look better than it NOT being mowed for another week!  I know that my neighbors will just be happy to see the yard mowed!

Long, long ago, I had a nutty, busybody neighbor that I caught one day with scissors cutting the grass runners that were on my sidewalk!  When caught, she asked if she could send her lawn person to edge my sidewalks! 
I declined !  I let the runners grow for some time until they are long enough, and hopefully with roots starting and hten I do some work in the back yard to get the weeds/ less preferred type of grass and then transplant the runners to start the good grass there. 

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Long, long ago, I had a nutty, busybody neighbor that I caught one day with scissors cutting the grass runners that were on my sidewalk!  When caught, she asked if she could send her lawn person to edge my sidewalks! 
I declined !  I let the runners grow for some time until they are long enough, and hopefully with roots starting and hten I do some work in the back yard to get the weeds/ less preferred type of grass and then transplant the runners to start the good grass there.

That's just nuts. Some people have no boundaries.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I patched part of the driveway today (cracks and some larger gaps). It's an experiment since the driveway is totally falling apart. My plan is to replace large sections of it using concrete and wire mesh. Wish me luck.

[clean]

My garage door does not seem to want to go down unless I hold the button the entire time.

I dont know if there is something blocking the eyes or if the wheels are causing it to think that something has blocked it.

It is just too damn hot to be out there, and frankly my garage is so messy that I would probably have to spend an hour just moving things around to get to the wheels and the eyes to be sure.

So MAYBE I will deal with this over the Winter Break!  (it should be cooler and I am busy with classes now!)

But if anyone has any insight, that would be appreciated!

[secundem_artem]

My garage door does not seem to want to go down unless I hold the button the entire time.

I dont know if there is something blocking the eyes or if the wheels are causing it to think that something has blocked it.

It is just too damn hot to be out there, and frankly my garage is so messy that I would probably have to spend an hour just moving things around to get to the wheels and the eyes to be sure.

So MAYBE I will deal with this over the Winter Break!  (it should be cooler and I am busy with classes now!)

But if anyone has any insight, that would be appreciated!

Lubricate the tracks & rollers & see if that helps.

[Parasaurolophus]

I turned off the backlight on my new laptop's keyboard, so there.

[Parasaurolophus]

On Thursday I'll be acquiring supplies for to build a winterized cat shelter, since one of them insists on staying out until all hours, and now that there's a hatchling I can't just wait up for him.

[clean]

Lubricate the tracks & rollers & see if that helps.

If anyone else has a similar problem, I suggest that you check the wires to the electric eyes.  One of mine had been knocked off. That was the problem.  Or should I say, that was the $135 house call problem!!  Had I noticed it myself, I definitely COULD have fixed it myself!!

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Lubricate the tracks & rollers & see if that helps.

If anyone else has a similar problem, I suggest that you check the wires to the electric eyes.  One of mine had been knocked off. That was the problem.  Or should I say, that was the $135 house call problem!!  Had I noticed it myself, I definitely COULD have fixed it myself!!

Glad it was resolved. For me, I plan to repair an ancient percolator. Yes, I have one and I have used it.

[ergative]

Absolutive's phone wouldn't turn on after it got drenched in a rainstorm. I took it apart and gave it a night in rice, and now it's all better.

Since it was a cheapo eight-dollar dumbphone it's not a huge savings, but it did save us the convenience of finding a provider of dumbphones to use to replace it. Those are becoming more and more rare these days.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

We're 'fixing' the couch using small blocks to brace the frame which popped out. It should give us a few more years. I really don't want to go furniture shopping at the moment.

[filologos]

My beloved printer, bought ten years and several states ago, kept saying it was out of paper when it clearly was not. I learned from YouTube that it was probably a broken part that led to a gear not connecting with another gear. The same YouTube video taught me to remove the side panel, access the disconnected gear, and wedge it back into place with cardboard. And now it's printing. If the cardboard fails, I'll find a better way to force that gear into place again. I am not mechanically inclined, so I consider this a triumph.

[mahagonny]

The 'button' switch in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Home Depot. One of those parts that costs two dollars or so. Gets flicked thousands of times over many years, then just fails one day. An incredible cost savings. A new medicine cabinet would've run $125 or more, and then probably wouldn't even fit exactly. So the old switch has to be at least thirty years old, because it came with the house. There's something reassuring about finding a part that's exactly the same as it was many many years ago. Or there's something satisfying about finding that even though you're old, some things are not changing faster than you can keep up with.

What a genius!

[FishProf]

There's something reassuring about finding a part that's exactly the same as it was many many years ago.

Praise for the GOOD ENOUGH.

This week I fixed
1) A burner on the stove that sparked every 10-15 sec, incessantly.
2) A torch lamp with a cat-chewed cors,
3) About a dozen Christmas light strings
and
4) A label maker that had eaten about 2 feet of label tape

I'm done.  I need a drink.