OCD, Yeah You Know Me

"glemon" (glemon) 01/27/2019 at 12:35 • Filed to: None

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So somehow in the building of garage Majal a built in, hard wired clock in the kitchen stopped working.

So yesterday I decided enough was enough and the clock needed to work again.

My cheapo voltage detector indicated the clock was getting power, so I decided I better look at the clock, took off the back cover and all the gears came out. Put it back together and verified it worked from another plug (more on this later, of course).

So it still wouldn’t work from the hard wire at it’s location. I didn’t have a clock problem I had a power problem. The Romex leading to the clock had been cut during garage demo. I already knew that, but for some reason simply wiring it back up didn’t solve the problem. A long ridiculous story follows with a lot of details which involved running a new wire through a hard to access, low ceilinged, attic full of fluffy and itchy insulation. Then ultimately tapping into a different circuit.

I now had clean new wire going to the clock, and I put it back in. The sweep second hand was sweeping and life was good— Except the hour and minute hands were not moving on the clock, and it was noisy enough to hear in the next room.

At this point I had been working on my little project for most of the day, with a little time off for grandson, and my wife, who know how I get, suggested I quit, and we buy a new clock mechanism.

Of course I said ok, then I took the clock apart again after she went to bed, figured out how it was supposed to go together, and it is working fine.

Anyway I could have gotten a battery operated quartz movement from Amazon for $5-10 bucks. Then I wouldn’t have had to worry about the power or the mechanism, but when I started it was going to be a quick little project, and once I start I get fixated on completion and there you go.

Still trying to decide if I have a strain of genius or idiocy, dogged perserverance or madness. As with most things the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

I do feel very good about the clock working, but  as I have gotten older I have realized that my methods (partly coming from being poor growing up and not having money to spend on fixing things, but I think there is more to it than that) work and provide a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, but they aren’t very efficient, and I have a hell of a lot of things I need to get done.

pip bip - choose Corrour > glemon 01/27/2019 at 18:11

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you fixed it, without spend money

that’s a win!

glemon > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/27/2019 at 20:32

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Thanks, sometimes I think I need to be more aware of the time/money balance though, but yes, it's a win.