The never-ending battle of man versus technology (planned obsolescence edition).

(insert appropriate onomatopoeia sounds for a freezer ice dispenser ripping apart its plastic housing)

"Fuck", I say, in the universal language for "here's another fucking project to add to the list." The back wall of the freezer compartment is completely destroyed. I go to the trusty interweb and order the replacement parts.

The wrong replacement parts.

"Fuck," I say, in the universal language of, "now, not only do I need to figure out which parts I actually should have ordered and order them, but I also need to go through the hassle of trying to return the parts I ordered in error."

The correct parts come in. I take apart the freezer. Luckily, we're having such a deep freeze that I'm able to put all the food out on the back porch. I remove the old assembly. But I can't get one part taken apart. There's no way I can finish the project if I can't get these pieces apart.

"Fuck," I say, in the universal language for "I can't believe I've gotten this far, only to have to either order more replacement parts for the ones I can't disassemble, or pay a repair person probably half of what the damn refrigerator is worth."

The Sysmistress offers to take a look at it. In the process, she knocks over a motor assembly, sending gears and grease every which way. She's fascinated by the motor, and starts putting the gears in, at random.

"Fuck", I don't say, in a rare moment of self restraint.

We try to use combined leverage to get the pieces apart. "Maybe it turns the other way." she says. "You can tell by the direction of the threads. I don't want to tighten it." I say, without actually looking.

We stop. I actually look at the threads. She was right. The pieces come apart.

A half hour later, the whole thing is put back together. Works like a charm.

"Thank you for being patient with me. And I'm sorry I was such a crab ass." I say, in the universal language of "Fuck?"

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 at 10:50 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.