A few days ago, I made chocolate turtles for a bake sale.
Things went swimmingly, until a plate of turtles slipped in the refrigerator and broke a light bulb.
It was not the easy-access light bulb that hangs from the top and sheds light on the shelves from above. It was the buried-on-the-lower-back-wall, I-didn't-even-know-it-was-there light bulb. I had to remove a drawer or two to find it.
This was not an easy task because our 'fridge is wedged in a cubby that does not allow the right door to swing past 90 degrees. So, my daughter lugged the 'fridge out a foot so we could remove the drawers.
Which then allowed us to see that shelves would have to come out as well.
And there it was. A sad little socket with the sharp filament of the bulb sticking out.
And dribbled syrup globbed onto the ice maker coil.
I swept up the biggest glass pieces, and was wondering how to get the coil off to clean up the rest when my brother, the ex-clown, arrived home from a long day at work. (He stays with us when he works at Cape Canaveral.)
Good engineer egg that he is, he shed his shirt and tie and checked out the problem.
"I need a potato," he said. "But, we need to turn off the electricity first."
Good grief. All from a slipped plate of turtles.
Current off, I sliced a potato.
Broken socket removed, my brother then examined the ice maker coil. "I need a socket wrench," he said.
Because I don't know a socket wrench from a regular wrench, I sent him to the garage to locate the tool. He came back with this.
He disappeared into the 'fridge piece by piece.
Coil loose, I wiped up the remaining glass and scrubbed off the gooey syrup.
The ex-clown put away the tools while I rooted through the closets looking for a 40-watt light bulb. Which we didn't have.
I washed the walls of the 'fridge, the shelves, and the drawers, and reinstalled all the parts. I put all the food back, except half a bag of spinach. I think it was spinach.
I'll do it all again when the light bulb arrives.
To answer the title question, how hard is it to change a light bulb - it's doable, if you have the right tools: a refrigerator on wheels, a strong back, a potato, a socket set, and a visiting brother.
Oh, and a replacement bulb.
2 comments:
Replacing the light bulb is easy. Getting to the light bulb is the difficult part. Nice Terp shorts!
...and to think this engineer managed to change that light bulb without: a) forming a committee to conduct a feasibility study on whether or not it was economical to change the bulb; b) conducting an environmental impact review to make sure changing the bulb caused no harm to the environment; and, c) determining whether or not the broken light bulb met the standards for safe disposal in residential refuse as defined in EPA Regulation 215-2, section 4a, subsection 102b. Amazing!!!!
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