(coe, household, health, adhd, 354)

[elainegrey]

Light went out in over-stove microwave a week or so ago. Christine had just gotten the dehumidifier replacement handled and was Unhappy. I quickly tracked down part and installation technique. Part has been here a while and yesterday i put it down as a condition of enoughness (IE: one thing that i can do to say i got the things done for that day). Dinner didn't need the stove, and only the microwave briefly. There was time between groceries and dinner: i had opportunity. I had all the tools, knowledge and parts: means. So i kicked myself in the motivator.

Three screws out easy, fourth stuck. Not the most ergonomic situation, pressing up on the driver into the screw trying to get the leverage to make it budge. I took the filters out, long overdue for a cleaning, cleaned those, applied WD-40. Eventually, we fubar'ed the Phillips head slot.

The internet let me know there are such things as screw extractors. Lowes was open for another 45 minutes so i drove over, had a sales person look at the screw and they picked out the teensy tinest screw extractor. The little tool mount they had would not hold the extractor: took a few pokes for them to look at 5/64 of an inch and conclude that actually, that was smaller than 1/4". So i should use a crescent wrench. That sounded like a disaster, so i bought locking pliers (has been on my, "I bet it would be useful to have" list for a while).

I tried again, but i think i need a third hand -- i don't think i can apply the upwards pressure and turn. Christine asked for me to put it off. I internet'ed and ordered another set of crew extractors that look like they would fit in our driver, and ponder using my drill with the tiny bit.

This morning i started trying to get the filters back in and the carbon filters will not stick in their slot and my back spasmed well and good. BLEEP.

This is why quick little projects never bleeping ever get bleeping done.

I told work i was out, thinking i would just skip meetings, but as soon as i told work, my skull reminded me of yesterday's headache, my chest and sinuses reminded me of the low grade congestion, and my concentration disappeared. And then it was 12:45? And coherency hasn't returned but coffee has perked me up.

--== ∞ ==--

One of the things i have learned about ADHD is that there's a outsized reaction to criticism, or implicit criticism, or judgement, or the potential for judgement. I'm trying to identify it more often and push back from the feeling. Recently, i couldn't push all the way back and wanted to talk about it. At lunch i asked my sister AITA and told her the story, from my point of view, and got a resounding no, followed by agreement about what the appropriate actions should have been, and also a little commiseration. ("Women should not be afraid to piss other people off," she quoted from somewhere, noting acculturation to prioritize getting along over many other things.)


After i got home i found myself thinking, "But AITA for telling L-- the story and asking her AITA?"


Yay, i have reached recursive insecurity.

*rolling my eyes at my brain*

Comments

[tamena]

EZ Outs are cool tools to have around
household little projects are the bane of my existence =/

[elainegrey]

Argh. Did not get it to work. Will need to try more. I did get the drill out. Yup, bane of existence.

[amaebi]

That sounds like a dreadful day.

Every project is a set of campaigns and recoveries and not remotely as much nor as consistent forward progress as those who Issue Authoritative Commands seem to envision.

Which I suppose is something lot of white men like about Donald Trump. He helps them to believe that sounding the meanest and most certain in saying What Will Happen is the apex of effectiveness.

[elainegrey]

The AITA was from earlier in the week, so not all piled on. Didn't think of how that would leave an impression together.

I will watch more youtubes on screw extractors and give it a go. At least the delay meant i ran the filters through a dishwasher load, so much cleaner....

Yes, "Do the thing! Solve the problem!" Trump's sense of "how hard can it be" and not respecting those who actually were solving it, but slowly, does seem to be that capitalistic (in the movie-set sense, it just seems so sterotypically CEO-ish? Or Mob bossish?) response and expectation.

[amaebi]

I very seldom understand what people mean when they say "capitalism/istic."

I tend to think of it as Big Daddyish, as in he patriarchal familial model in which the paterfamilias' role is to Issue Commands, look stern, and lie back to critique the work/attempts to implement those Noble Aims. For me, George Lakoff's suggestion in Don't Think of an Elephant that what the right wants is to Give It All to the Big Daddies explained a lot of mysteries and contradictions that arose for me in trying to analyze policy strategy in terms of stated goals,

[elainegrey]

Indeed, the "movie set sense" i was using is also very Big Daddy.

[amaebi]

Definitely.

[threeringedmoon]

I hate fiddling with stuff like the light replacement: everything just seems so badly designed, especially for people who don't have a lot of strength in their hands.

[elainegrey]

Christine says, "Everyone is doing the best they can, it's just not good enough." We seem to have created a system of production that rewards just good enough.

I got the drill out and will be trying again once i make sure i am understanding the drill settings correctly.

[arlie]

I've declared myself too old and unfit to handle these wretched "little" projects any more. Instead, I collect competent handymen. They can deal with the blasted things, and if they've been doing that kind of work for a while, they already have all the tools they could possibly need.

[elainegrey]

I wish i lived close enough to ask for recommendations. I think we burned ourselves out on a friendly but slowly-we-realized-not-so-competent handyman.

[egret]

I give you so much credit, because at the point where I failed to get the last screw out, I would have just bought a new microwave. They're pretty cheap now.

I am not at all handy with projects like that.

[elainegrey]

Well, replacing the microwave means installing it over the stove, which is definitely a handyman job. We did buy a back up microwave (cute! small! retro!) the last time this current one behaved badly and the cyclotron or whatever died.