flowers, movie, computer repair
This morning, "J" sent me on errands. The one that I understood to be the highest priority was to go to Sky Nursery for a certain variety of native roses. The shopping expedition was a bit of a challenge, because I wasn't clear on what variety she meant. But the people at the store were very helpful, and we managed to find the correct variety.
However, J had at least one other errand in mind before the roses. I'm still unclear what it was, other than something to do with her garden volunteering. And having done the roses errand first, I wasn't able to get the other errands done in time. Oops!
After the flower shopping, I treated myself to some tea at a drive-through place.
Next errand was my idea: I went to Scarecrow Video for movies. I rented the next disc of Land of the Lost, part 1 of season 2, and ordered a copy of Dune Part 1, which I hope to watch before Part 2 leaves theaters.
Update: Alas, Part 2 left theaters before I got a chance to watch Part 1.
Around the time I finished up my errands, J needed a ride home her garden volunteering. I picked her up, and took her home.
Next errand was a trip to get one of J's laptops repaired. The hinge didn't work properly; it was largely stuck about one-quarter open. I took it to the repair shop, waited my turn for someone to help, and showed them the problem. They said that they could do it, but it would be in queue for quite a while, and cost quite a bit, because the battery was swelling and would need replacement. But as an alternative, I could fix it myself, as long as I had the right tools - and run it directly from wall power. They showed me their tools, and said that I could probably get them at a Best Buy store.
So, next stop was Best Buy. I searched for a while and eventually found the tool set, bought it, and headed home.
Fixed it myself (photo) Back home, I got to work trying to do the repairs. The first step was opening the case by unscrewing various screws with the new tool set. Next step was to pry it open with the prying tools from the set, which look like slightly oversize guitar picks. That was easy enough, but at a certain point it wouldn't budge. Putting more pressure started to bend the laptop's case: not good. Eventually, after a whole lot of puzzling over the problem, I discovered more screws, hidden underneath some trim that hadn't been obviously removable. At that point, the case opened up pretty easily. Once inside the case, I discovered that the battery was really swollen. I removed the bad battery and closed everything up.
I took photos. Maybe I'll add them to this article at some point.
Update: I realized that I didn't test before closing it up. Unless J tested it on her own, it still hasn't been tested.