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Our kid bath tub has been slow to drain recently and I've been very nervous about what was gumming up the works. Normally I'd just pop the drain cap off and take a look... but the darn thing was stuck.
____A___
[___ ___]
| |
EE
It basically looks like this, but the top spins about the bottom spindle freely. The bottom of the spindle is where it attaches to the bath drain. After 10+ years of living in this house, we've always removed these by spinning the top part and having it transfer maybe 50% of the spin to the bottom piece, screwing or unscrewing as necessary. But the bottom piece was more secure this time, and no amount of twisting the top was going to untwist the bottom.
What a stupid design!
There's not enough clearance to grab the spindle with pliers, so I was about to get serious and dremel the thing to bits and replace it with a new one. Then I noticed a seam where the 'A' meets the top. With some gnarly pliers, I untwisted the top knob from the top and, lo and behold, there was the top of the bolt that secured it to the bottom. A couple cranks on the ol' reliable and out it came.
With about a pound of... stuff.
Minor miracle!
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
The diagram reminded me of this:
doubleposta
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
Bingowings said:
The diagram reminded me of this:
That's it! The Rebels are there!
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
Minor miracle #2
10 years ago, both lights on my garage door opener worked. ~appx 6 years ago, one of them stopped working (no matter how many times I changed the bulb!). As I still had one working light, I didn't really care. Then, ~3 years ago, the other one stobbed working. I have lights on a switch in the room, so the only loss is that the lights don't go on and off automatically with the door.
But still it bothered me and I resolved to do something about it. Sometime.
So, a month or so ago, on Saturday, I decided it was the day. To google it, at least. The only help I found made an offensively simple suggestion, which I only tried so that I could rule it out and move onto the next step. Someone suggested that the contact at the bottom of the socket was a springy piece of bent metal that had lost its spring over the years and all one had to do was bend it back out again and start the despringing process anew.
Well... it worked. On both lights. And it took about 25 seconds per light with perhaps another 10 seconds of ladder moving. So I procrastinated a 1 minute fix for about 6 years... but the key thing is that it's done now.
A minor miracle.
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
Hmmm, should this thread really be called "Minor Miracles" or should it be the Xhonzi's Does it Himself Thread"?
I'm thinking these things are less inexplicable by nature or science, and more minor home repairs you can easily get done by getting up and actually tackling the problem.
Buzz harshed.
After some thought I've decided the diagram looks more like :
Bingowings said:
After some thought I've decided the diagram looks more like :
I was thinking something more along these lines
“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison
CP3S said:
Hmmm, should this thread really be called "Minor Miracles" or should it be the Xhonzi's Does it Himself Thread"?
I'm thinking these things are less inexplicable by nature or science, and more minor home repairs you can easily get done by getting up and actually tackling the problem.
The miracle is the combination of two factors:
1. I did it myself.
2. It was a success.
Two things rare enough on their own which constitute a minor miracle when found together.
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
I have this plastic frame on my desk that has a little rubber nub on the back. I popped the nub out and it bounced off the desk, onto my lap, and who-knows-where onto the floor. I looked for a couple minutes and it was solid-gone.
5 minutes later I found it in my pocket.
I know, right?!?!
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
Sometimes you seem like a smart guy and then sometimes...not so much.
Ball achieved sentience, ball hiding where you least expect.
^Is that like hanging brain?
Johnny Ringo said:
Sometimes you seem like a smart guy and then sometimes...not so much.
A friend and co-worker once announced that I was the dumbest smart guy he knew. I wear that like a badge of honour.
Maybe I shouldn't.
:)
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
You are mute and well dressed?
Cool.
xhonzi said:
I wear that like a badge of honour.
Dammit man, you're from America!
ORIGINALENGLISH.COM!!!
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
I stared down at the brown soupy mess and tried to decide if it was worth risking trying again or not. It had been nearly ten hours. A long ten hours. This fight had dragged on for my entire day off, and it had gone on long enough. I was sick of it! This had to end now! If it meant driving to Wal-Mart and buying one, so be it. It was hard to believe my flat mate and I had lived here for this long without having the occasion to need one, but clearly we hadn't. I had searched high and low, through every closet, and there was none to be found.
A trip to Wal-Mart is going to be at least a forty minute long excursion. I really didn't want it to come to that. I had urinated on it several times throughout the day, it had broken down and deteriorated, the brown log that had been my morning BM was now nothing but bowl full of brown water emitting an chokingly awful odor, but still the stubborn bastard persisted and wouldn't go down. Seriously, how had we lived here this long and never needed a plunger before? There went my week long dream of spending the entire day off in nothing but my underwear.
No, I worked to hard for this! Looked forward to it for far too long! I wasn't going to let my dream die without a fight! I wasn't going to let a bit of 10 hour old fecal matter I had been at war with since mere minutes after waking up ruin my dreams! It was risky, but I was going to give it another shot!
I held my breath, and positioned a finger over the knob. "Here goes nothing..." I muttered to myself. I quickly lowered into a position where I could start closing the valve if it started backing up too far. The last time it looked like it was going to be disastrous when it backed up right to the rim. I couldn't have another close call like that. If it overflowed and flooded the bathroom, my evening was going to be shot to hell, and I'd still have to make that journey to the dreaded Wal-Mart.
The smell was overwhelming. Why the hell did they have to put the valve back behind the commode? I hate engineers. Did they really fail to envision a scenario where someone might need to quickly shut off the valve to spare a backed up toilet from over flowing? Or did they envision it and found it a really fun practical joke to play on the world? Who the hell knew. I counted down from three, placed pressure on the knob, and prepared myself to crank the valve like my very sanity depended on it...
I watched as it backed up to the rim more quickly than I could have anticipated. Shit! Just as the panic was setting it, a deep brown whirlpool formed and the water levels began to drop. It worked! I let out a sigh of relief. Haha! I can't believe it, after all these hours, I've finally won! The fecal war of July 23rd was over!
I stood up and washed my hands really well, all the while thinking to myself, "Well, that's one for Xhonzi's minor miracles thread".
I'm so glad I didn't wait until breakfast to read this.
...
It's a minor miracle!
CP3S said:
I stood up and washed my hands really well, all the while thinking to myself, "Well, that's one for Xhonzi's minor miracles thread".
I knew you'd understand where I was coming from.
IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!
"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005
"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM
"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.
Does xhonzi coming back for one glorious 30 minute stretch count as a minor miracle?
Yes, it does.
Even if he didn't even bother to comment on Burial at Sea.
:(