But Then It Blew Up!
So, I came home from West Trumpistan last night, completely exhausted. The living room was dark, and it shouldn't have been. The lighting array for the plants should still have been on, and wasn't. Everything else seemed okay, but no plant array, and not even the flickery old-fashioned neon pilot light. I poked at where I remembered the reset button being, but didn't feel it. Screw it, said I. I was exhausted, and wanted to go to bed, and didn't feel like getting a flashlight and messing with it.
This morning I went in to look at it. The reset switch is gone. There's just the mount hole left, with shiny contacts at the bottom. I'm glad I didn't poke around too aggressively in the dark.
I suppose the bypass resistor that limits the current to the NE2 must have exploded. Such a thing happened to me once, years ago, with a big Blue M electric oven that I used in my lab. I'd gone in to switch it on, with Tim my assistant following me talking. I flipped the switch, there was a flash and a *POP!*, not quite as violent as a firecracker, and the glass pilot jewel went skittering across the concrete floor. I stood there nonplussed, looking like a fool, and Tim, with his usual sang-froid, crossed his arms, and said, "Now *that* was cool", which started me cackling maniacally.
I need to try to find the fragments, I suppose, so I can write to the manufacturer and try to get a new one. It's lasted a good fifteen years or so, but still, that oughtn't to happen.
*****
I find myself tempted to rebuild the thing using an NE2B, so that I can have an antique style neon pilot light, but in a fashionable blue, like the LEDs. I'm glad that I'm able to amuse myself so easily.
*****
I'm starting to see why Princess Meghan's family didn't all get invited to the wedding. The only real benefit of arms to an American is that when you're tempted to act awfully, you can remember that you had an ancestor so cool that even the King was impressed, and try to live up to that. Of course, on some people that's a loss to begin with.
*****
Strange, strange, confused dreams these last three nights, which all deal with the night-time being a place where you go, rather than a time which comes. Confusing, and kind of frightening, but not really nightmares. Night (or, I suppose, Sleep) is like a dark sort of building in which I find myself, and I have a room in it, and so do other people. Nothing really bad about it, but just worrisome, for some reason.
Original posted at https://rain-gryphon.dreamwidth.org/45100.html
This morning I went in to look at it. The reset switch is gone. There's just the mount hole left, with shiny contacts at the bottom. I'm glad I didn't poke around too aggressively in the dark.
I suppose the bypass resistor that limits the current to the NE2 must have exploded. Such a thing happened to me once, years ago, with a big Blue M electric oven that I used in my lab. I'd gone in to switch it on, with Tim my assistant following me talking. I flipped the switch, there was a flash and a *POP!*, not quite as violent as a firecracker, and the glass pilot jewel went skittering across the concrete floor. I stood there nonplussed, looking like a fool, and Tim, with his usual sang-froid, crossed his arms, and said, "Now *that* was cool", which started me cackling maniacally.
I need to try to find the fragments, I suppose, so I can write to the manufacturer and try to get a new one. It's lasted a good fifteen years or so, but still, that oughtn't to happen.
*****
I find myself tempted to rebuild the thing using an NE2B, so that I can have an antique style neon pilot light, but in a fashionable blue, like the LEDs. I'm glad that I'm able to amuse myself so easily.
*****
I'm starting to see why Princess Meghan's family didn't all get invited to the wedding. The only real benefit of arms to an American is that when you're tempted to act awfully, you can remember that you had an ancestor so cool that even the King was impressed, and try to live up to that. Of course, on some people that's a loss to begin with.
*****
Strange, strange, confused dreams these last three nights, which all deal with the night-time being a place where you go, rather than a time which comes. Confusing, and kind of frightening, but not really nightmares. Night (or, I suppose, Sleep) is like a dark sort of building in which I find myself, and I have a room in it, and so do other people. Nothing really bad about it, but just worrisome, for some reason.
Original posted at https://rain-gryphon.dreamwidth.org/45100.html