phosfate: Ouroboros painting closeup (Lost by ponyboy)
phosfate ([personal profile] phosfate) wrote2006-12-08 09:39 am
Entry tags:

car trouble

So I get home last night and the garage door won't go up when I push the button.

No! my soul cries out. Technology, why hast thou forsaken me?

The battery's dead, you moron, says my brain.

Okay, I say. So I go in the house and eat dinner and then start looking for a screwdriver. The door remote is held together with a teeny black screw. I put it on the breadboard and get t'unscrewing.

But the housing is a little sproingy, because of the piece of foam rubber on the inside that...I don't know what it's for. Keeping the battery warm. Nesting for the electrons. Anyway, I get the screw loose and it goes boinnnnnnnnng...sliderattleclickthunk.

Into the sink.

Down the drain.

Into the Dispos-all. With the deadly whirling blades.

"Fuck!"

Now, I've seen Mom stick her hand right in there any number of times to fish things out. But look where that got her. No, not gonna do it.

I need a strong magnet on the end of something thin.

What, oh what, WHAT long, narrow object in the house has a strong magnet on it?

Looking back, I probably should have taped a fridge magnet to a pencil, but the first thing that comes to my mind is one of the features of the Obitsu 60cm 2 Part Female Doll [Fleshtone] BALL JOINT MODEL" The strong magnets in the soles of the feet allow the doll to stand alone. It says so on the package, albeit in Japanese. Okay, it may say something else entirely on the package, I have no idea. Nice typesetting, though.

"Stop looking at me like that," I tell Tommy, as I'm detaching her right leg at the knee. Another feature of the Obitsu 60cm 2 Part Female Doll [Fleshtone] BALL JOINT MODEL is that its limbs are easily detachable, to facilitate putting on tricky clothing, repair, or replacement. She is left with a left leg and a right swizzle stick. "You'll get it back."

I return to the kitchen, stick the leg down the sink (foot-first), and retrieve the screw. And a small amount of an unidentifiable brown substance that looks sort of like that horrible brown blobby stuff you sometimes find on cooked beef. "Oh GOD!"

A few minutes later, I'm back in the bedroom. "Look! See! See how pretty and clean your leg is now? Neat, huh?" But Tommy's no fool. She hates me now.

Anyway, I washed the screw and changed the battery and the door works. The end.

[identity profile] ashenmote.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
*releases breath*
OMG. I expected that to get messy in so many ways, and I don't even mean the aesthetically lacking horrible brown blobby stuff.

[identity profile] smirnoffmule.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
That was ingenious.

[identity profile] tsamm.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 05:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Now that's what I call problem-solving!

[identity profile] nitasee.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
That's my Ann.

[identity profile] almostnever.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I never would've thought of that. I just would've used my left hand and probably lost some fingers.

[identity profile] tikistitch.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Did you get pictures?

TELL ME YOU GOT PICTURES!!!!!

[identity profile] thistlethorn.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee! Love the story. Love the icon. Glad your garage door is working!

[identity profile] kosher-jenny.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I am going to second Ashenmote's OMG. Right now Miranda is pretty glad that she doesn't have any magnets in her. (of course, right now she's sitting un-assembled in a box at home) But I'm glad everything worked out in the end.

I am tempted to ask you to post this on DoA. XD
snacky: (Default)

[personal profile] snacky 2006-12-08 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Just letting you know, I got an email from Tommy, asking if I knew where she could get a gun.

Thought you should be aware!

[identity profile] strigine.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
See? This is why humans rule the earth! Cunning use of tools!

(But yeah, I'd sleep with one eye open for a few nights.)

[identity profile] viedma.livejournal.com 2006-12-08 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Why don't you have a home improvement show? You should.

[identity profile] luiloth.livejournal.com 2006-12-09 06:20 am (UTC)(link)
Wasn't this an episode on "I Love Lucy"?

Luucccyy!!

[identity profile] renne.livejournal.com 2006-12-10 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
I think your idea was better anyway. I don't know that a fridge magnet would have enough suck to work. Suck? Pull?