Mister Fix-It

As a man, you want to be able to fix things that are broken and perform the basic tasks in the house.

The light-bulb on our garage-door opener cannot stay lit. I bought those special bulbs specifically designed for the opener, but it only took a couple of days before their weak filaments broke. I had an idea. Those newfangled compact fluorescent bulbs don't have filaments. I installed one of those puppies last night. We'll see how long it lasts.

The driver's-side light bulb went out in the car a couple of weeks ago. I found a web thread that discussed how to do it and it sounded simple enough. Doesn't it always seem that way? The final line was "The whole job takes 5 minutes to do. When you have done it once you will kick yourself as to how easy it is." Maybe my problem is that we have a 2002 Sonata and not a 2003. I ended up taking off the lamp assembly and got the new bulb in easy enough. The tough part was getting the spring back on. As most men do, I didn't pay enough attention when taking the spring off to figure out how to get it back on. (Ladies, please try your best to stifle your laughter) So I had to open up the passenger's-side to see how the spring was done. Five minutes later I had that puppy in there. Sheesh! So it took me 30 minutes in all. But hey, if you need a bulb replaced on an '02 Sonata, I'm your man.

Our poor lawn mower sounds like its drunk lately. It'll go puuuuurrrrrrr, cough, cough, wheeze, puuuuurrrrrr, cough, cough, wheeze. Repeat ad nauseum. Today I changed the oil and spark plug. The oil was this blue color and opaque; that didn't look so bad until the new stuff I put in was this blue and clear. I pulled the spark plug out and it was as black as night with the blackness caked on. The new one was nice and shiny silver. We'll see on Monday if it works or if it's a different problem.

But I feel extra manly today. Next thing to do: rinse out the air filter.