Day 2077

I thought I'd fix an old aluminum colander today. This colander was so old that it must have belonged to my Mom. Or maybe it belonged to Janet's Mom. One of the legs had fallen off and Janet was going to throw the thing away. "I can fix that," I said. This was about a month ago actually. Men aren't generally that quick about fixing things. I thought it would be easy to rivet the leg back on the bowl of the colander using my rivet gun. I hadn't used the rivet gun in years, so the first problem was finding it. After searching in all the logical places, I finally found the tool in an illogical place. It made sense that I would store the rivets with the tool, but of course I didn't. It took me another thirty minutes to find a supply of aluminum rivets. I got ready to attach the leg and realized that the broken old rivets were still attached. I would have to drill them out. The batteries on my electric drill were dead, but I managed to find an old AC powered drill of my Dad's. The drill didn't have a chuck though, so I couldn't attach a drill bit. I finally managed to pull the old rivet out of the hole with a pair of pliers. The first time I tried to rivet the leg to the bowl, I forgot to place a washer on the back side of the rivet and it fell out of the hole. Finally, I got things right. Two hours after I started, I had a successful repair. I wonder why I thought that fixing the colander would only take me ten minutes?

Fixing things around the house always takes me a long time. The whole process is kind of like household archaeology. I have to sift through layers and layers of stuff to find the tools I need. We ran out of space so long ago that stuff is just piled on top of other stuff. If a tool is buried under too many layers, it is often easier to just drive to Home Depot and buy another one. The rivet gun was buried under layers of painting supplies, which were in turn covered up by three folding tables that Janet and I used to use at Dalmatian Rescue events. Long before I found the rivet gun, a bunch of wasps found me. They has been building a nest a few feet over my head. I didn't get stung, but the wasps did make me work faster. I often wonder why I embark on projects like this. I could have gone to Bed Bath and Beyond and picked up a brand new colander for just a few bucks. The old aluminum utensil didn't even have much sentimental value. I guess I feel compelled to fix things.

I hope going to the gym on Sunday is beneficial because I could certainly think of better things to do with my time. I've been pretty faithful about my weekend workouts, but I still don't see the fascination with exercise that many people have. Every morning when we walk the dogs, we pass dozens of cyclists and joggers who are up just as early as we are. I'm up because I know that Dot and Dash really need these walks. I wonder why these other guys are up so early?  If I had a choice, I would just sleep in an extra hour. I did go to the gym today though. And then I ate cake when I got home.

The TV went out again this evening, and since I couldn't get things to work on my own, I called U-Verse tech support for help. After answering the usual laundry last of questions, the technician suggested that I disconnect the HDMI cable from the TV and plug it back in back to front. "Why would this make a difference," I thought? I dutifully took the TV end of the cable and plugged it into the U-Verse receiver and took the receiver end and plugged it into the TV. It worked! Since nothing was wrong with the cable in the first place, I wondered why flipping it back to front brought the picture back. The technician didn't know. "Sometimes this just gets the signal flowing again," he said.

The calendar looks pretty empty next week. Dot does have a birthday on Thursday though. We'll have to do something special.

Mickey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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