Mo's Marketplace | Random Thoughts, Ceiling Fans, Celtics, and a Walk

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Random Thoughts, Ceiling Fans, Celtics, and a Walk

 

Mindless thought for the day: I was watching a show called “Cold Case,” but was mightily disappointed when I got through the entire show and I realized there was no beer at all – never mind a cold case of it.

 
This is too funny:

 

Ceiling Fans: A simple 20-minute job accomplished in only 4.5 hours. My father in law and I spent 4 and a half hours putting up a ceiling fan in my bedroom today. What a disaster: two guys working on taking down the fan that was up – no mean feat, given it’s 12’ off the ground, I’m standing on an 8’ step ladder, he’s standing on a kitchen chair to support the fan so it doesn’t, you know, crash to the ground. We finally get that thing down – not paying attention to the wiring, after all, just match up the colors, right? 

 

Well, we get this behemoth down – to my surprise, it was held onto the extension rod with a cotter pin and a tension-screw. One half turn of that tension screw, and the damned this came close to crashing down on dad-in-law’s head. Something’s not right there, but somehow it held for a good 20-odd-years or so. 

 

So, out of the box. We put together this new 3D jigsaw puzzle together – more or less – without incident. I also picked up a new remote control unit, so we had to put this receiver unit into the canopy when we wire up the fan. Ah, first issue: wire color doesn’t match up. 45-minutes later, Mo realizes why…and feels like a dope. Astutely, Dad-in-law suggests the directions indicate that if the color schemes don’t match up, you should call an electrician. I’m not having that – I’m not paying a couple of hundred dollars to hang a $100 fan. Nope, I’m going to figure it out. And I did….eventually. 

Great, get it up, test it.   ZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPP! Crap. I had to remind him that although I have a reasonable life insurance policy, it would do nothing to set Mrs. Mo up for any extended period of time and I suggested that it would be folly to position himself to help his daughter out by having that policy “mature.” 

 

Well, thank god for circuit breakers. The next job then, is to figure out what happened – look at the wire caps. Look at the wires – white to white, black to red. Wire caps, one is scorched. You know, I bet…white to red, black to white. Of course, it makes all the sense in the world. Voila! 

 

Secure that to the ceiling with great difficulty – what with that receiver buried in that canopy and all – and….nothing. ARGH!! Okay, okay. What now? Take the canopy apart – wire disconnected. Reconnect. VOILA! Secure to the ceiling. Nothing. ARGH! Lather up, rinse, repeat. A different wire coupling had come undone. ARGH!!!

 

"The Fan" from the Home Depot Website

 So it eventually went up. And the wireless remote control works too. Perfectly balanced. Even though it’s on a 24” down rod, it wobbles ever so slightly at top speed, if at all.  
 

Celtics Win: I haven’t followed the Celtics since I got into Junior High (it was called “Junior High” then). I got turned onto the Bruins, and Red Sox, and a little later on, the Patriots. As an aside, the last Celtics game I went to was this one: we had tickets to the 2002 Eastern Conference finals with the NJ Nets, Game 3. The C’s were losing by 18 points at the end of the 3rd and we decided to call it a night. We left the “FleetCenter” drove a little way to Allston to Café Brasil and had a wonderful dinner. Upon returning to our car, I just HAD to find out how much they lost by…only to find out THEY FLIPPING WON! This is the first I’ve ever told anyone that we didn’t actually stay for the whole game – just our little secret, eh?   

 

I was fully prepared to write something tonight about another favored Boston team going down to a huge underdog and the sporting cosmos claiming another victim. While I don’t count myself as a “fan” per se, I do hold an affinity for the Celtics and if I were to have a favorite team, it would be them. I’m happy they advance tonight – they never should have been in a “win or go home” situation against the Hawks – a team which barely made the playoffs and was significantly under .500 – but they were and they played their way out of it to a serious arse whomping 99-65. Good to see. Go Celtics. Onto Cleveland. Thank goodness for home court, eh?

 

Walk for Hunger. Today was a generally dismal day here in Massachusetts. Rain, showers, drizzle. The whole thing. It was also the 40th Walk for Hunger. 

 

There was a time where I would regularly partake in the Walk for Hunger, a 20-mile walk around Boston and it’s suburbs which raises money for the poor and homeless.  Although it’s been some time since I have partaken, it holds a special place in my heart. Congratulations to all those who refused to let the weather get the best of them. You’re all my hero.

 

Posted by Mo at 10:21:29 PM in Random (3) | Comments (2)

Comments

1. Fragnoli said...

I had the luxury of replacing the hall light in my home recently. Mind you, we have owned the home for 4 years now, but are only now getting around to replacing the ceramic, $4 fixture the previous owner installed with a much nicer pendant. Like you, I found out he had not secured the previous fixture, leaving it to the wire nuts to hold it up. At least he had the power box in there though, so once I climbed the 16 foot ladder and reminded my boys not to turn the light switch on a few times, it went up okay. Alas, I feel your pain.

5/5/2008

2. Mo said...

Oh man, we've owned the house for 5 years now, and every night for the last 5 years I've looked at that thing and thought about how ugly it is...some 1800 nights.

5/5/2008

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