From the "it's never as easy as it looks" department: Last weekend there were a few minor repairs I accomplished that were more exasperating than I would have thought.
First, I needed to change the driver side headlight in the Accord. Unfortunately, Honda placed a plastic cover over the area and has a ventilation tube running over the light. Once you get the cover off, you have very little room to get your hands on the back of the bulb because of the ventilation tube. Assuming in that cramped position that you can manage the large torque needed to unseize the bulb, then you have a new problem. There is not much slack in the wiring so it is difficult to release the bulb assembly from the connector in that same cramped area. All said and done, what should have taken about 3 minutes ended up taking half an hour.
After that I decided to change the battery in my watch. Recently I bought a set of those tiny screwdrivers that are perfect for this kind of repair. I opened the watch back with little difficulty, exposing the inside. I found out that you have to take out the guts of the watch to get at the battery. Fine. I popped the internals out. There's a thin strip of metal which wraps around the assembly that you need to gently free to release the battery. I carefully open it and replace the battery. Now it's time to put the watch assembly back in the case. This is where it got unexpectedly difficult. After I put the back on, I noticed the none of the four main control buttons on the side worked. I removed the back again and noticed that you have to be careful to line up the tiny microswitches on the assembly with the buttons attached to the case. It took some trial and error to figure out how you do that. After taking the back off and putting it back on about three times, I finally figured out how to get the tiny switches to line up correctly with the watch buttons. As is common with things like this, there's a trick to it.
In some ways, this is a lot like my day job. Even the simple questions always seem to turn out to be more complicated than they appear.
Yesterday we went to the Nix's house to visit. It had been a handful of months since we had last seen them. They live an hour north in Belmont, NH. The girls had a great time playing with Kelly and Melanie. Daniel was pretty happy exploring but Michael got a little fussy after 6PM. I don't think he really took a solid afternoon nap so he may have been just overtired.
Unbelievably, Abby talked the entire drive home even though she was dead tired. She just refused to concede to sleep. She asked Michelle a silly question about once every minute. "Mama? Why are those lights white and those lights red?" "Mama? It's good to ask nice, isn't it mama?" "Mama, what color does blue and red make?" I'm amazed Michelle didn't lose her patience. I also expected Abby to fall asleep about 2 miles from the house, as that's what she usually does. But no, she fought sleep to the very end. The other three kids, including Claire, were sound asleep.
Having Tuesday and Thursday off broke up the week nicely. I'll have to do it again when the folks are here. For now, though, it's time to turn off this junk laptop and get ready for work.