I replaced an outdoor light fixture over the weekend. We bought it months ago and I never got around to it, and decided to tackle it while my wife was away visiting her sister. Installing the fixture itself was no big deal, I’ve done light fixtures, ceiling fans, smoke detectors, etc before. But there were some tricky parts to doing it myself, and I’m proud to say I MacGyver’ed a couple of ingenious solutions. And the light came on on the first attempt!
Well, if the topic is small triumphs, i think i have an entry.
Recently, I was plagued with a kidney stone. Not fun at all. This was about 3 months ago. The pain was very unmistakable.
Well fast forward to about 10 days ago. I start to have that unique, agonizing pain in that same side of my bladder/groin/lower flank area. Great, i thought, wtf, gotta go thru this again? Well before i even bothered to go to the ER, guess what happened? I developed even worse pain in the other side too, in almost exactly the same location!
Well i procrastinated no further and went to the ER. Once i finally spoke to the doctors, they were extremely skeptical and dismissive of my belief of having stones on each side of my urinary tract simultaneously. It irritated me immensely. But that irritation was eclipsed by my pain and other symptoms so i said no more on the issue. I was ordered to undergo a CT scan to see what was going on anyway.
Well what did the scan show? Two giant kidney stones in virually identical locations in each of my two lower ureters. When the doctor came back, he was amazed at the infinitesimal odds of such a thing happening. “Well, you successfully self-diagnosed yourself! Do you realize how unlikely it is for there to be two stones at once like that? Once you leave here you need to go play the lottery!”
So, I was right! Fuckers. So my reward for being right was to undergo a double uretoscopy and stay two nights in the hospital!! Plus pee out blood for 3 days after that. But i was right dammit. So yea, definitely a small, small triumph.
My wife went to a neighborhood website to ask if anyone had an Android tablet available for sale. She wanted a “play tablet” for her grandkids. Surprisingly, a guy down the street donated a virtually new Samsung Tab A that he didn’t need anymore. (And I mean an “indistinguishable from new” tablet for $0.) My wife sent it to her daughter for use by the grandkids.
Next thing I know, I’m told that it won’t boot and is giving a “weird” error message.
Fast-forward to last Saturday, when we got to their house after flying in from our current residence in the SE. After some idle chitchat, I’m handed the tablet. It does nothing. I take it in the back room, hook it up to a charger, and wait about five minutes. I push the button and it boots up absolutely perfectly…no error messages at all. It’s been working perfectly ever since.
Not that it was a tiny car… it was a “Small Triumph.” (see thread title)
Oh, Duh!
Thanks.
In that case do my two Triumph Tiger cubs count? I had them both running & I got my motorcycle endorsement on one of them. That was way back in 1974?
Horse. Baby diapers. Horse. Baby diapers.
Nope. Still doesn’t feel right.
Beckdawrek: You have a real problem with the wiring into your house. Bad ground, poor neutral, something like that. Get it fixed ASAP. I’m not kidding. You can damage your appliances … or something Bad, Bad, Badder.
Sanitary pads and diapers work quite well when you need to apply pressure to bleeding wounds, or dress bleeding/oozing ones. They’re quite absorbent and lock the fluid in so it’s not dripping all over.
Yep. I got Mr.Wrekker on it. He’s a lisc. electrician. We had some well pump work done recently. He thinks that’s what caused all this. Or maybe alien visitations. I kid:)
He’s working on it.
Diapers are also useful for poulticing the equine hoof.
I can snatch a stack of 40 coins off my forearm. Also, when I accidentally jabbed a knife into my hand while separating two frozen burger patties I applied direct pressure with a dish towel to stop the bleeding on a spurting wound.
This. A baby diaper and duct tape.
I always carry a few sanitary pads and a roll of vetwrap in my saddle bag emergency kit.
I was at a game convention last weekend and played a game I liked very much (and was designed by one of the convention organizers). Unfortunately it was published in limited numbers and was long out of print. Got home Sunday night and decided to check Amazon. One copy in stock! I ordered it and it’s scheduled for delivery today.
Does the TV have a direct sight line to the microwave? Microwave may be emitting a burst of infrared radiation.
Drifting well away from the small triumph of the OP, but …
Replaced the cooktop this morning. Took less than 2 hours. Works great and better yet looks amazing. One big shiny smooth surface again. It’ll be up to Mrs. FtG to keep it that way. (Well, one can hope.)
Got a really good deal for it online. Was worried there would be a catch but nada.
More for fun but still technically “practical”.
I saw that Harbor Freight had a sale on hex bit socket adapters. 99 cents each. That reminded me that I have a Yankee screwdriver I had picked up for cheap somewhere a good while back and never used it since it didn’t come with the specialized bits it uses. (It’s a Stanley 133H. Maybe late 50s?)
So project time: Grind down the base of the adapter a little so it will fit into the opening. Cut a notch in the base to it will “grab” at the bottom. A little notch on the side to fit the catch. Took a surprisingly long time to grind it down. Tried various things and went with Mr. Dremel in one hand, the bit hex-end first in a fixed drill in the other and some patience.
Worked out really well. Holds nice and tight. Can use any hex bit now. Cleaned and lubed it. It runs sooooo smooth it’s amazing.
Now I need an excuse to go … um, apply a helical forward action on something.
An update and a new small triumph. First, I took the CD changer apart, didn’t see anything that resembled the situation you described. Played a CD with the cover off, and it played perfectly. Put everything back together and it now works fine. I guess the mere threat of my tinkering scared it straight.
A couple of years ago our old Kenwood AV receiver stopped responding to the remote control. After some time spent on the Google, I found an old forum post by a guy who had the same issue and he was kind enough to post photos of the cracked solder joints that caused the problem. Easy to access, and I was able to resolder the joints and fix the receiver. Last month I visited a friend who I hadn’t seen in years. I stayed a night at his house and while he was showing me around his garage I spied a similar Kenwood receiver in the corner. I asked him if the remote control worked and he said nope (he probably wondered why the hell I would ask about that in the first place). Well, it does now.
That’s as good an explanation as any. My Dad used to repair TVs and such–guess how many times a piece of electronics would come to his workshop and refuse to malfunction for two weeks? Then go home and immediately throw a rod? Then rinse/repeat?
Glad the CD player works again, Dag. You the MAN!
This is the way us tinkerers play wizard. 
Observe the look on a housewife/husband’s face when they complain that the GD clothes dryer door opens the wrong way and you tell them it can be reversed–and then you do it! Sheer adulation. It’s the little things that make life worthwhile.
If I had a nickel for every remote I’ve had to fix because of a cold solder joint on the flasher-dealie, I’d have, well, 35 cents. All the other components are happily snugged up to the circuit board and wave-solder easily, but that emitter (?) just hangs out there and has to be difficult. :mad:
You done good, Otto, take a bow!
When I told my friend that all we needed to do was touch up three solder points, he said great and proceeded to start taking the remote control apart. I had to stop him and tell him that the issue was inside the receiver, not the remote. Hardest part was disconnecting and reconnecting the speaker wires.