Sum'bitchin Weekend...

[spinr]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

So, in the grand scheme of things I don't suppose it was that bad, but rather one of them times when it would've just been better to stay in bed.

Started out with a crash the other day, two actually.  First, the shelving in my bedroom closet collapsed.  It's a smallish walk-in closet, more like a step-in closet.  It only had a few of those cheap wire rack with hanger bar type shelves that were previously installed when I came to occupy the place.  They were poorly installed, with most of the hardpoints just screwed into the drywall.  The shelves had pulled from the wall before, but I'd just patch it and put off fixing things properly.

Anyhoo, I heard the thunderous avalanche from the other end of the house.  Couldn't figure out what it was at first.  Thought it may have been the Boxer stampeding through the house, until I tried to get some things out of the closet and couldn't get the door to open.  The metric ton of clothing and other crap I had in there had become a heap of rubble blocking the door.  I had to squeeze my arm through the little opening available and push and pull things out until the door was clear, then haul out and sort through things.  

Off the hardware store to get materials to make my own shelving and about 2-3 hours investment today and I have King Kong grade closet storage.  

Of course, the closet conundrum led to other annoyances.

My relatively new DeWalt cordless drill took a dump.  About a dozen screws into the project, it farted and locked up.  Changed batteries, tried different speeds & torque settings... nothing, pull the trigger and it won't make a peep.  I toss it aside and break out the handy-dandy $19 corded Skil drill I got at WallyWorld and commence to shelving again.  Bout 15 minutes later I happen to pick up the DeWalt to move it and notice the damn thing is exothermic.  It's HOT, like warp-core-breach hot.  Pulled out the battery, cussed it to no end, stomped around the house a bit, and got back to shelving.  The rest of the project went fairly smoothly.

Until I started loading in the closet.  I keep my Winny 12 ga. Defender in the closet for those certain special occasions; and I had an old extra-long tube sock covering it to protect from dust.  As I went to put the gun back in there, I decided I ought to check it over... make sure it nothing was amiss.  Amiss it was.  

My beloved scattergun had a number of rusty specks on the barrel.  I'm an idiot.  I really neglected the gun, it's too easy to overlook maintenance on it being in that closet.  Fortunately, a pad of 0000 steel wool and healthy soaking of Break-Free and all is good.  I think I'll invest in a decet silicone laden gun sock soon.

The second crash actually happened about a week or two ago.  I only discovered the source of it this weekend.  Again I heard it across the house, sounded strangely glassy & metallic in nature.  And again, I figured it was the dogs playing as I couldn't immediately find anything wrong.  Upon digging through the cookware I have stored in the under-oven drawer of my stove yesterday, I discovered that my Corningware 9x13 glass baking dish had dissolved itself into a million little pieces.  Absolutely shattered, glassy shards all over everything in that drawer.

Great... move pots & pans... tinkle tinkle tinkle... scoop glass... move more cookware... tinkle tinkle tinkle... oooowww, *expletive deleted*ck that's sharp... bleed bleed bleed... bandage... scoop glass... vacuum... wash everything that was in the drawer... done!

Lastly, I must've wrenched myself doing the shelves.  I can't seem to lift my left arm much past 45 degrees from midline without a goodly amount of pain & soreness.  I really need to take better care of myself.  I'm only 28 and I really feel like an old geezer sometimes.

And now, I sit here at work counting the minutes until I can go home, back to bed...

I know, I know... this is me -->

Bitchin's good for the soul, though.  But feel free to --> or tell me to ...

Thanks for the rant, anyway...



BTW, anyone have experience with DeWalt's service & support.  If I'm not mistaken I've only had the drill for about a year and a half; got it as a gift Christmas 2004, I think.  They offer a 3-year limited warranty on workmanship & materials, so I'm going to see if they'll fix or replace it for me.

Thanks!

[Stickjockey]

No prob, bro' when it rains, it pours.

Where do you get those cool smileys, though?

[Azrael256]

Did my great uncle happen to install your shelving?  He's a big tall guy with gray hair.  Looks like a Choctaw.  

We bought this house from him, and had the same problem.  Cheap Rubbermaid brand shelving installed with 1" drywall screws, loud crash, stuff everywhere.  I cannot bring myself to understand what he was thinking when he put it in.  Those nice chromed free-standing wire units cost $65 apiece at the hardware store, but he chose to spend $75 a unit to put in that rubbermaid crap in the garage, too.  I guess there's no accounting for taste.

The best part was when I went to buy the stuff to build a new closet.  I needed a 2x4 to run into the wall.  No problems there.  I needed a sheet of plywood to make a shelf.  Again, no problem.  Then I needed a length of 3/4" galvanized pipe, threaded.  The machine was on the fritz that day, but they got it to work.  Then, I was after two floor flanges to secure it to the aforementioned 2x4.  I swear, the guy in the plumbing department looked at me like I had three heads.  I described a floor flange, in exacting detail.  He continued staring.  I drew him a frappin' picture on the back of my shopping list.  The staring went on.  I was just about to call him an ambulance, as the only valid explanation for his behavior was some kind of horrible seizure, or possibly a stroke, when another employee walked up behind me with two 3/4" floor flanges in hand.  I like that second guy.  He's clearly too smart to be working at home depot.

Anyway, I ended up with a closet rod that I can do pullups on, so it all worked out in the end, I guess.

[BozemanMT]

funniest thread i've read in a while.
scoop, tinkle, bleed
snort
did you ever figure out why the pan exploded?
My wife had a pyrex dish explode while canning, glass into the big canning pot
an entire day's work ruined.
I don't like pyrex.  Metal doesn't explode

"clearly too smart to be working at home depot"
now that's funny stuff.

[spinr]

Where do you get those cool smileys, though?

I've collected them from various message boards.  When I find one I like, I save the .gif file, and then upload it to my photo hosting service.  It's kind of a pain to have to get the image link then paste it with BBCode tags in the posts, but I think they add some fun personality to things and like how they help convey subtle expressions & meanings that get lost in words alone.

did you ever figure out why the pan exploded?

Not really.  It was laying flat in the drawer and only had a couple of smaller glass dishes resting in it, so it wasn't really under any stress.  Guess it's just one of them things...  Must've been made on a Friday.

Similar thing happened to a sliding glass door at my parent's house many years ago.  Woke up one morning to find the glass pane in the sliding panel completely shattered, but still intact in the door frame.  Uniform cracking throughout, and no impact point indicating it may have been struck with something.

And I've seen this happen on about a half dozen cars over time.  Not a break-in or vandalism, just a single window broken in little bits & pieces withoug any indication of an impact.

I guess the weather/heat-cool cycling/composition of the glass comes together (along with the phase of the moon and how you hold your tongue ) and creates the right condition for it to happen.

:/

My misfortune had to get in one last blow, though...  The velcro on the right sandal of my favoritest bum-around-the-house footwear came unglued and won't stay on my foot.  They're just a pair of rubber Nike sandals I got about 10 years ago, but they're so perfectly broken in.  I think they're salvagable, though... the Liquid Nails is setting up now...

[K Frame]

My ex had a pyrex baking dish explode.

She quickly grasped the concept of exactly why pyrex shouldn't go under the broiler, even after I told her it shouldn't.

[...has left the building.]

Get some beers, put on some tunes and STFU

Bummer about the DeWalt. I've used a ton of their tools over the years and I haven't had a problem.