No rest for the (very) weary

[torquill]

Fry's closes on Easter. I have no idea why, given that they're open just about every other holiday other than Christmas, but there it is.

So I grabbed some Molex connectors at Radio Shack yesterday and proceeded to get sufficiently frustrated by soldering the speaker wire that foogod took over. (I do know how to solder, but it was thick wire, and it was being difficult.) So I have four pairs of speaker wire ready to run now. Thanks, foogod...

This morning I was all set to go to Fry's first thing, when I looked out the bathroom window and saw a geyser. Siiiiigh... Throw a robe back on and go out to confirm that the mower took out one of the drip watering bubblers. It's fortunate that I saw it -- I wouldn't have thought to check before going off to school this week, and the winter garden would have gone dry because of the drop in pressure. Still, not what I needed right now.

An assessment of the damage after my shower told me that it was a quick fix -- the rebar bracing prevented any damage to the main pipes, so all I had to replace was a snapped riser and the PVC valve above it. I was very, very glad that it was all threaded rather than glued (yay good design!). I went off to the irrigation supply place, got a handful of such pieces, admired once again the very beautiful counter clerk, and went to Fry's.

It took two trips because I got the wrong thing the first time. I wanted eight-pin single inline connectors with a 0.1" spacing... I finally did find the right row on the shelves, after quite a bit of looking. Sure enough, the place where the 8-pins were supposed to be was empty... and so was the one for the 4-pins. They have plenty of 5's and 10's, some 2's, 3's, and 6's. Gah. I walked out with a box of 2's and a box of 6's; I'll consider looking for 8's when I'm in Fry's from now on, on the off chance I feel like constructing a harness that isn't quite so much of a bodge job.

So now I've scored some 18-gauge stranded wire, and I see soldering in my future. Again. I can't wait to be done with all this.

The mowing must have kicked up something especially nasty this time around -- not only do I have hay fever (which is rare), but my lungs hurt and I've half-lost my voice. I hope some time in Davis will clear it up. It did not help the quality of my sleep, though, and the fact that my tinnitus has kicked in tells me I'm running dangerously close to the edge.

I need to make sure I get to at least some of my biochem homework today as well... it's been a hell of a weekend, but classes wait for no one.

Comments

[johno.livejournal.com]

Amazing how easy it is to fix drip watering. Even if you just cut the ofending bit out and replace it whole, it's fast and easy. (Not counting glue in bits.

They were warning on the radio this morning that virtually all the pollen counts are WAY up this week.