Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Outraged over Outlets

Name that tune:

"Rarr rarr, like a dungeon dragon. Change your shitty drawers cuz your pants are saggin'."

I'll give you a hint on that song: it's from the mid 90's. And Abbey, if you don't know it you need to get back to yo roots.

Okay, yesterday I was bound and determined to get some things done around the house. As you probably noticed, I didn't actually do most of the things I was supposed to do over the weekend. As I walked around the house, anything that has been annoying me got my very divided attention. But, I got a few key areas taken care of and tonight I'd like to hit a few more. Most importantly, I finished up that freaking outlet situation in the upstairs bedrooms. Details to follow.

Details:


A few months ago I used an outlet tester to check all of the outlets in the house to make sure they were wired correctly. It tells you if you have wires backwards, if you're missing wires, and so on - it's very handy. As it turned out, most of the outlets were backwards. I went around and fixed all of the backwards (hot/neutral reversed) outlets and rechecked them. Somehow, the outlets in my bedroom and the "office" upstairs were still reversed. I switched them again, rechecked them and the tested said they were missing the ground. I killed the power again, took them back out, checked for a ground (which I couldn't see either way), replaced the outlets, checked them again (thinking the ground was really there but it had a bad connection) and it told me they were reversed. DAMN! At that point, I stopped so that my frustration wouldn't make me do something stupid and get me killed.

Yesterday, I decided to finish that project so I could put the furniture back where it belongs in my bedroom. I won't go into the finer details because I'm sure most of you don't care. But I rewired those outlets and somehow they were STILL reversed. So I did them one at a time, requiring that I follow the steps below:

  • Down to the garage, turn off the power.
  • Back upstairs, rewire the first outlet.
  • Down to the garage, turn on the power.
  • Back upstairs, check the outlet. Oops, didn't put the outlet in the box. The ground wouldn't be there, gotta shut off the power again.
  • Down to the garage, turn off the power.
  • Back upstairs, screw outlet into the box.
  • Down to the garage, turn on the power.
  • Back upstairs, check the outlet. It's as good as it's gonna get.
  • Down to the garage, turn off the power.
  • Back upstairs, rewire the second outlet.
  • Down to the garage, turn on the power.
  • Back upstairs, check the outlet.
  • Down to the garage, turn off the power.
  • Back upstairs, rewire the third outlet.
  • Down to the garage, turn on the power.
  • Back upstairs, check the outlet.
  • Screw the outlets in all the way, install the outlet covers.


So, that's like a million trips up and down the stairs turning the power on and off. Also, the outlets were behind furniture, so I had to climb over shit every time. Plus, it was starting to get dark so I was in a rush to beat the clock. Alas, I did finish it to my own satisfaction.

Once that was done, I put the furniture back, picked up all the crap that had accumulated on the floor in the bedroom (papers, books, unread National Geographics, CDs, movies (I don't even have a TV in there, why do I have movies on the floor?), newspapers, etc). I ran the vacuum and the place looks a lot better.

THEN, my microwave is super finnicky and if you unplug it (or turn off the power) all of the buttons don't necessarily work when you plug it back in (or turn the power back on). Right now, I'm operating without a clock, Stop/Clear button or number buttons 4-9. After a few weeks, they should start working again. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

- End of Outlet Story -


I have a project in mind that I'd like to build. Currently, my bedroom has a huge pile of running gear right next to the door. It's a mess and I can never find anything. I wanted to buy something to put all of it in, but I don't want some plastic tub in my bedroom. What better time for a woodworking project than now? I'm gonna build a chest to store all of my gear. I have a few things that I'll have to accumulate/build before I can get started, and I'm working on that now. I'll try to keep you posted. This is going to be my rainy day/weekday evening project, so it's likely that it'll take me all summer but it's a worthwhile project and it'll give me the creative outlet that I need in my life.

Well, time for breakfast #2.

Over and out,
Old Coot

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's the scenario. Damn! At least make the questions difficult.

Abbey said...

Wow, Todd, I can't believe you even quizzed me on that. Preceded by "What?" on the Low End Theory album.

Todd said...

Ladies, ladies, please. Just because I'm trying to keep you all sharp is no reason for getting all up in my grill. I probably could have used "Wow, how now, wow. Who now, Brown Cow" and you would have also guessed it. It's slightly more obscure, but easy nonetheless.

You should be pleased that you were so blessed as a teen to know that music, to have lived in the oh-so-fresh summer when that album dropped, and more importantly, to have such a fantastic blog to guide you on a trip down memory lane.

"Who's that? Braaaoooowwwnnn".

Abbey said...

Todd, you get an E for effort and a T for nice try.

"Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him.' and I just took off." -Pre