Tikkabik

I am not the handiest guy in the world. I can replace a sink fixture reasonably well, and I can break a computer apart and put it back together again in minutes, but there's a lot of stuff that I'd just as soon pay a trained professional to handle as do it myself. So when I got my wife's e-card for Father's Day, I laughed out loud -- it's an interactive one that shows a bunch of tools, and when you roll your mouse over any of the tools, you hear a guy screaming in pain and cursing in different and unusual ways.

Anyway, apropos of Father's Day, I had two incidents today that reminded me that I can fix things when I need to and am motivated.

I discovered mid-afternoon that it was almost as warm in the fridge as it was in the kitchen. The freezer was working fine, but the thermometer in the fridge was in the 50's -- well into "spoilage" range, according to the little chart imprinted on the thermometer's face.

The fridge has two dials inside of it that control temperature and air flow exchange between the refrigerator and the freezer. I cranked both of them to their maximum settings and watched ... and waited ... as nothing happened.

Well, the air exchange happens through three different vents between the freezer and the refrigerator. The central vent is connected to the fan that circulates cold air through the freezer, and the two others are returns, near as I can tell. And it was pretty clear that all three were plugged solid with ice.

So out came all the frozen goods, and the storage tray, and the ice cube tray. In went a rachet with a special attachment I had to pull two screws out of the bottom panel of the freezer. And lo and behold, a solid wall of frost and ice in the back of the freezer, right where the vents are.

I didn't want to let any of the food spoil, so I grabbed Bonnie's hair dryer and blasted it on full until the ice and frost melted away enough for me to jiggle the vent covers loose and clear them myself. The fridge is working fine right now, and I must say that I'm inordinately pleased with myself for figuring it out, even if it was just common sense.

Problem #2 was potentially more serious, but just as easy to fix. I went to the grocery store at dusk and figured out in fairly short order that the headlights on Mom's new pickup weren't working. All the other lights were working, just not the ones that actually let me see the road in the dark.

I checked the fuse panel under the dash -- nothing. I checked the fuse panel under the hood -- all's quiet on the western front. Then I traced the wires to the headlamps.

Some friggin' numbnuts at the dealership pulled the wires off the back of the lamps and didn't bother -- or forgot -- to put them back on.

I can only presume that this happened after the state inspection was done, because that obviously wouldn't have passed. Wink wink, nudge nudge.