Achievements
Oct. 24th, 2006 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doireToday I glared at the tumble dryer… And it obeyed.
It stopped working in the summer, but in the summer I dry clothes on an outside line. Now it’s October and outside drying isnot reliable, futile, a stupid idea. SO, I gathered my notebook, logic probe and screwdrivers, took the top off and started to document exactly what it was doing in the various states. The cheapest repair I was predicting was hours on the UK white goods forums followed by buying a new heater. The worst would be the comparator chips.
The dryer doesn’t have a microprocessor, unlike the washing machine, but it does have some fancy circuitry. It all seemed reasonable, so I muttered at it and put the top back. It’s worked fine ever since. It’s nice to know I haven’t lost my touch.
I have a love-hate relation ship with my major appliances. I love the functionality and hate the ways they find to go wrong. The current washing machine is micro processor controlled, but unlike the last one has a 10 year guarantee and has worked fine for several years. The one before was advertised, on a bill board that I had to pass each day on my way to work, “ At last. The washing machine that thinks for itself.” It did, and frequently its decision was that it “didn’t feel like washing today, thank you.” I used to leave a video camera running so that I could work out what it had done this time.
It stopped working in the summer, but in the summer I dry clothes on an outside line. Now it’s October and outside drying is
The dryer doesn’t have a microprocessor, unlike the washing machine, but it does have some fancy circuitry. It all seemed reasonable, so I muttered at it and put the top back. It’s worked fine ever since. It’s nice to know I haven’t lost my touch.
I have a love-hate relation ship with my major appliances. I love the functionality and hate the ways they find to go wrong. The current washing machine is micro processor controlled, but unlike the last one has a 10 year guarantee and has worked fine for several years. The one before was advertised, on a bill board that I had to pass each day on my way to work, “ At last. The washing machine that thinks for itself.” It did, and frequently its decision was that it “didn’t feel like washing today, thank you.” I used to leave a video camera running so that I could work out what it had done this time.
I’ve bought a pressure cooker. It’s almost exactly like the ancient one I’ve had for years, but clean and shiny. The manufacturers have just started remaking it after several years of “improved” designs. And, even better, I bought it from a store for which I had some vouchers not spent for several years. They were so old that the till assistant had to take them off to check the design in the files. No money changes hands. I like it.
I collected a rucksack from a local freecycle offer. It’s a much better bag than my elderly rucksack. (Some things are better designed now.) No money again.
The logo
on the bag amused me for fannish reasons.
I can see it’s a ram’s head now, but I couldn’t then. And I cycled 12 miles to collect it so I feel good about exercise. Win all round.
The logo
on the bag amused me for fannish reasons.I can see it’s a ram’s head now, but I couldn’t then. And I cycled 12 miles to collect it so I feel good about exercise. Win all round.
Tomorrow I spend the day cooking biscuits and trying to impart nuggets of wisdom of science and maths to children and mothers. There are a lot of things, ranging from the dangerous to the extremely messy, that could wrong. No money will change hands; I'm volunteering. Wish me luck.
ETA The dough for 500 biscuits is an impressive volume. This is starting batch; more will be made throughout the day.
