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Jul. 13th, 2020 09:37 amIncredible as I find it, the externship letter demon is rearing its ugly head again. I've written six letters in the last week. I'm not interested enough to go look up whether I wrote some of these for the same students to go to the same places in January and am re-writing them now, but I suspect that might be the case. Sigh. At least it keeps me employed.
On Saturday, in addition to having Fun With Field Trips, I had Fun With Ceiling Fan at home. The living room ceiling fan ticked when it was on the highest setting, and the ticking drove me to distraction. The weather lately has meant the second-highest setting, though quiet, wasn't adequate. So I did what everybody does these days and went to Youtube and found DIY ceiling fan repair videos. Based on how the fan was moving, I thought the problem was either in the canopy over the junction box (which, it turns out, is merely over the wiring) or in the connection between the downrod and the motor housing. So I hauled out the ladder, and climbed up and took the canopy off. It was held on by two screws, and the second screw wasn't seated the way it should have been, I think. It took a lot of unscrewing and then fell out suddenly, and fell right into one of the slots in the motor housing. So there I was with the fan hanging onto the ceiling by the wires, with my arm under the fan blades holding it up, and a loose screw in the motor somewhere. And the downrod is only 6" long, and the screwdriver is 8" long, so I couldn't get the angle to take the motor housing apart and find the screw. I put the other screw back in, and climbed down, and called my father to find out how screwed (pun intended) I was likely to be. He said turn the fan on for a second and see what happens. So I did, and nothing untoward happened, and it had even stopped ticking (I wonder if it ticked because of the way the second screw wasn't in properly). I think I got away with something I shouldn't have. I did have to go back up the ladder and wash the dirty fingerprints off the ceiling, though.
After all that fun, I went off to the dive shop. I missed various buses and ended up walking from home to Fairbanks St and then from Coolidge Corner to Marion St and then from Brookline Village to the shop, in the heat, and was a rather disturbing shade of red by the time I got there (they have a mirror for mask fittings). Then I spent $840 in ten minutes buying regulators. Nick says they've been selling a lot of regulators lately, because people would like to know whose mouth it was in last. I bought the same ones I've been renting, because I don't need anything complicated for recreational dives, and I don't mind that they're expensive, because they're important. Then I missed various buses on the way home and ended up going to the Brookline Village liquor store for beer while I was waiting (limit 2 customers in the store at a time, and when I got there, there were 2 customers in the store and one of them was paying for a pack of cigarettes in pennies, ARGH, so I had to wait outside for several minutes), but caught a 65 bus afterwards and went to Whole Foods for seltzer and cherries.
Came home and drank about half a gallon of water and seltzer, and finally stopped feeling thirsty. I think I paid for the dehydration and nerves yesterday, though, because I spent most of yesterday with intestinal unhappiness. It got better by bedtime and I feel much better today, so I'm chalking it up to dehydration and nerves rather than corona-related GI issues. I did call off doing anything yesterday or going anywhere until about Wednesday, though. And I'm out of Cheerios, harumpf.
Last week I ordered the most urgent items from the "small improvements to staying at home all the time" list (and a DVD). I should get the USB adapters and the DVD today, and the keyboard stand on Friday. Hooray for credit card points, because a $80 order cost $14 in actual money. Now all I need is to take two or three days off to sit around and watch DVDs all day.
On Saturday, in addition to having Fun With Field Trips, I had Fun With Ceiling Fan at home. The living room ceiling fan ticked when it was on the highest setting, and the ticking drove me to distraction. The weather lately has meant the second-highest setting, though quiet, wasn't adequate. So I did what everybody does these days and went to Youtube and found DIY ceiling fan repair videos. Based on how the fan was moving, I thought the problem was either in the canopy over the junction box (which, it turns out, is merely over the wiring) or in the connection between the downrod and the motor housing. So I hauled out the ladder, and climbed up and took the canopy off. It was held on by two screws, and the second screw wasn't seated the way it should have been, I think. It took a lot of unscrewing and then fell out suddenly, and fell right into one of the slots in the motor housing. So there I was with the fan hanging onto the ceiling by the wires, with my arm under the fan blades holding it up, and a loose screw in the motor somewhere. And the downrod is only 6" long, and the screwdriver is 8" long, so I couldn't get the angle to take the motor housing apart and find the screw. I put the other screw back in, and climbed down, and called my father to find out how screwed (pun intended) I was likely to be. He said turn the fan on for a second and see what happens. So I did, and nothing untoward happened, and it had even stopped ticking (I wonder if it ticked because of the way the second screw wasn't in properly). I think I got away with something I shouldn't have. I did have to go back up the ladder and wash the dirty fingerprints off the ceiling, though.
After all that fun, I went off to the dive shop. I missed various buses and ended up walking from home to Fairbanks St and then from Coolidge Corner to Marion St and then from Brookline Village to the shop, in the heat, and was a rather disturbing shade of red by the time I got there (they have a mirror for mask fittings). Then I spent $840 in ten minutes buying regulators. Nick says they've been selling a lot of regulators lately, because people would like to know whose mouth it was in last. I bought the same ones I've been renting, because I don't need anything complicated for recreational dives, and I don't mind that they're expensive, because they're important. Then I missed various buses on the way home and ended up going to the Brookline Village liquor store for beer while I was waiting (limit 2 customers in the store at a time, and when I got there, there were 2 customers in the store and one of them was paying for a pack of cigarettes in pennies, ARGH, so I had to wait outside for several minutes), but caught a 65 bus afterwards and went to Whole Foods for seltzer and cherries.
Came home and drank about half a gallon of water and seltzer, and finally stopped feeling thirsty. I think I paid for the dehydration and nerves yesterday, though, because I spent most of yesterday with intestinal unhappiness. It got better by bedtime and I feel much better today, so I'm chalking it up to dehydration and nerves rather than corona-related GI issues. I did call off doing anything yesterday or going anywhere until about Wednesday, though. And I'm out of Cheerios, harumpf.
Last week I ordered the most urgent items from the "small improvements to staying at home all the time" list (and a DVD). I should get the USB adapters and the DVD today, and the keyboard stand on Friday. Hooray for credit card points, because a $80 order cost $14 in actual money. Now all I need is to take two or three days off to sit around and watch DVDs all day.
