One of Those Days

One evening, I decided to change the towel bar in the bathroom.

I know – normally this is a weekend kind of job. But changing a wall-mounted towel rack takes, what, an hour max? Surely it could be done on a weeknight.

Except the old towel rack was not typical. See, most racks you buy have hidden screws (the new one, in fact, has hidden screws). But when we remodeled the bathroom, I chose a rack that did not have this common feature.

So when I took the old rack down. . .

First the anchors for the screws (or were they mounting brackets?) dropped into the wall as I unscrewed the towel bar. Surprising how ominous the sound of something falling out of reach and out of sight is.

When the bar was completely off, there were holes in the wall. Not giant holes. Just big enough to forcefully shove a dime through.

The night now belonged to spackle. Off to Home Depot at 7:45 PM.

(7:45 at night might be when you're normally out and about. But I don't go out after dark unless it's with or for friends or family. You should probably stay off my lawn.)

Puttering along, I get pulled over by a cop. Which was slightly nerve racking, since I was issued a citation in December for almost hitting an officer while attempting a lane change (Driving While Extremely Tired). I did online traffic school and everything, but I can't get another hit on my record for something like a year or 18 months, so

I pulled over and he said something through the loudspeaker which I heard as "Move up, please" but then he said it again and it was actually "PULL INTO THE PARKING LOT" so I pulled my seatbelt back on while I slowly driving into one of the lesser known lots of the Hilton Hotel.

"I pulled you over because your headlight is out," he said, though he didn’t specify which headlight. Sitting for an unbearably long time as he took my license, registration, and insurance and (presumably) ran me several times through his SMOD*, I stared into the bushes. (It seemed uncouth to turn on the radio or play with my phone.)

I guessed it was the passenger side light, which I verified with him when he brought my stuff back and before he sent me on my way.

Challenge # 2 - a new headlight. I remember my dad changing one of the headlights on his car as we were on our way to his house one weekend. He changed it in the parking lot! So I should be able to change a headlight, right?

Plan A: Get instructions from the internet. Take light bulb out of car during lunch break. Drive to auto parts store after work, show them the light bulb, buy the replacement, go home, change light bulb, eat dinner.

Plan B: Get instructions from the internet. Drive to auto parts store after work, ask them the light bulb for my car, buy the replacement, go home, change light bulb, eat dinner

Plan B. Because the first set of instructions I found were rubbish, and by the time I found something useful, my lunch time was over.

I ended up buying two light bulbs; it seemed wise to have them both be spanking new. The change out took roughly an hour, with 58 minutes devoted to pushing the wire thing in and down to lock the new bulbs into place. You'd think after doing one, the second would be faster, but noooo.

My back was not amused. For several hours.

But, I was still able to install the new towel rack before bedtime. A victorious ending to one of those days.

  

*You'll have to watch the first 30 minutes of the Blues Brothers. Not Blues Brothers 2000. The Blues Brothers.