Friday, July 11, 2008

A Noncub Fan

As if being a Cub fan isn't trying enough, I entered a different kind of fandom. (Ha spellcheck) Last weekend, JoAnne decided that the bathroom fan, that hasn't worked for the fifteen or so years that we've lived here, should be replaced. Being the handy guy that I am, I headed off to our not so near-by Menards store. Nothing to it (I thought) just take down the old one, attach a couple of wires, tighten a few screws, Voila! and we would be properly exhausted. Good game plan but, the easiest part was turning off the electricity and unscrewing the light bulb. Seems that the unit was installed first and the bathroom was built around it. Well let's take a look at the instruction for the new one. Now it's starting to look a little more complicated. I looked at the old installation, then back at the shiny new pieces, then back to the instructions, then off to the local lumber yard looking for a real handyman. There was no one handy at the time so we admired the hole in the bathroom ceiling for a couple more days. In an effort to do something busy looking while Jo mowed, weeded, watered and pruned our yard and the surrounding neighborhood, I tampered with the old fan unit which had accumulated, at least, a half of a century of dust and grim. I scraped and brushed and vacuumed until something resembling a little motor with a fan attached appeared out of the pile of debris. I plugged it in to an outlet and slowly the little blades started lurching into action. "Holy Crap!" it was working. I immediately (actually the next day) ran to the bathroom and after a few oops and oh ____s, I had reinstalled the old unit. Now the real test, flip the switch. Yes! It was working and only a little less noisy than the fans at Wrigley Field. Maybe if I put a Cubs' Banner in the bathroom, noise won't be too annoying.

I promised pictures of Hosta Heaven.
Here's Hosta
(Not really our yard but very similar)
Actually Dubuque Botanical Garden