Live Long and Prosper

Several weeks ago a cow-orker of mine made the famous "Live long and prosper" hand sign invented by Leonard Nimoy for his Spock character on Star Trek. But he was unsure of whether the sign was made with the thumb extended or not.

Of course we quickly found the answer (thanks, Google), including pictures from the TV episode where it was first used.

Anyway, I thought of that hand sign immediately when I saw the cast they put on my younger son, 2 of 2.

In case you're curious, he wiped out on his scooter and when he put his hand out to break his fall, he broke his pinkie and ring fingers. The doctor said it was a Salter 2 fracture, and the orthopedist said that they had to be immobilized to give them a chance to heal properly. You can Google for Salter fractures if you are curious.

Live long and prosper,
Dad

New Olympic Sports

One of the fun things about any Olympics, including the one just finished in China, is watching the new sports. Who can forget the excitement that swept the world when curling was introduced at the 1988 Calgary games?

Actually, it was RE-introduced, having appeared in the first Winter Games way back in 1924 and also having been part of the '32 games in Lake Placid. Curling was a "demonstration" sport in '88 and '92, and became an official Olympic event in 1998. What was once so exciting for its newness is now part of the fabric of the games.

This year's Summer Games brought BMX racing to Beijing. While this is not a new sport to us Merkins, it is probably pretty new to much of the rest of the world.

But apparently you can change existing sports as well. Witness the Decathlon and Heptathlon and the throwing of Javelinas. Not being a big track and field fan, I don't know what javelina throwing replaced in the competition for the title of "World's Greatest Athlete". NBC declined to show the javelina throwing competition during its prime-time coverage, probably to avoid the protests that would surely come from PETA. I also couldn't find it at nbcolympics.com.

And it's a shame, too. I would be interested to know the proper technique for throwing javelinas, and wonder how far a world-class athuhleet can throw a javelina.

I would also like to know how athletes train in parts of the world where javelinas are hard to come by. We've all cringed as we've watched third world swimmers struggle to compete when they have no (50-meter) pools in which to practice. How do prospective javelina throwers practice? Do they use pot-belly pigs? Or worse -- midgets?

Enquiring minds want to know (and the National Enquirer(TM) has been silent on this controversial issue).

Inspector Gadget

With apologies to the animated Inspector Gadget(TM), that name seemed an appropriate title for a post which introduces my experiments with gadgets on my blog. It (my experiment) is clumsy and, in many ways, clueless. In other words, perhaps a lot like what you'd expect from Inspector Gadget if he were to write a blog.

So Many Gadgets, So Little Time

There are quite a lot of gadgets to choose from. Something north of 40,000, if I remember correctly. Indeed, with that many gadgets, how can one peruse them all to find the best? Most popular, perhaps? But would that really be the best? Or would it only be the best of the first 100 or so that were presented in the first couple of lists?

Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen

So I chose "this date in history" and "quote of the day". Both are inspired by my good friend, Seamus, who occasionally sends out very interesting "this day in history" types of lessons and whose emails always end in a supposedly random but often quite apropos quote.

I should note that Seamus' history notes arrive occasionally, not that they are occasionally interesting. In fact, they are usually interesting, unlike actual history lessons from my days in publick skool.

I shall enjoy seeing what these gadgets have to offer.

Confused

If you peruse the list of gadgets, you may find yourself mildly confused, as I am, by the pictures that accompany each gadget in the list. For example, the Jokes gadget is presented beside a picture of a woman's bikini clad chest. The text describing the gadget indicates that you can choose from several joke categories, including "clean" jokes, but why did they choose that image as the visual identity of the gadget? I've never thought of either breasts or of bikinis as particularly funny.

And what happens to the wholesome, family nature of my blog if I put jokes in it? Will that cleavage photo appear next to every joke? Or will that depend on a "picture on/off" setting? And what about the jokes? I learned a long time ago that almost any joke is sure to offend someone. Indeed, a friend of mine recently sent out a joke that caused a few "I'm offended" messages (followed by the obligatory "I'm offended that you're offended" replies). So this is a current concern. I'm not sure that I could put an unregulated joke gadget in my blog without offending someone among my readership. So I guess I'll have to pass on that one.

Come to think of it, the two I am trying out (history and quotes) could end up offending some people. But at least they aren't accompanied by myopic pictures of buxom women.

What do you think? Are gadgets a good idea? Hmmm. Maybe I'll choose the poll gadget!

Man vs Machine

I vaguely remember in some literature class of my youth that there were only four story themes. I'm pretty sure three of them were:

1. Man vs Man
2. Man vs Nature
3. Man vs Himself

But what was the fourth? Today I will nominate "Man vs Machine".

The particular machine today was my dishwasher.

The battle actually started a few days ago at roughly midnight. I had started the dishwasher before going to bed, as I often do. We have a pretty quiet dishwasher so the sound has never been a problem before. But on this fitful night it started to make a horrible racket which continued for almost all of its water spraying time -- over an hour.

According to the owners manual (yes, I still have it) this usually indicates that something hard has entered the food grider. It should go away after it gets all ground up. But of course, the sound never went away or lessened. Owner's manual's recommendation: call for service. But since I'm unemployed, I decided to battle the dishwasher myself.

6/10ths (my better half) gurgled our dishwasher model number and found a service manual for the equivalent Whirlpool model (ours is a Kenmore). I printed the PDF and went to work.

Aside #100 decibels: The troubleshooting guide in the service guide said nothing about noise as a possible problem.

I removed the racks and started taking out parts until I got down to, and removed, the food grinder. There was nothing around to explain the noise, leaving me to conclude that the main motor (which turns the grinder as well as pumping water through the sprayers) was going bad.

I went back to the owner's manual (the service guide didn't include a parts list) and then to Sears' parts store (online, of course). A new motor was $140 (+tax and shipping). A new sump and motor assembly was $180. Since there were lots of dire warnings in the service manual about damaging delicate parts when removing or installing the motor, I decided that for an extra $40 I'd go ahead and get the sump and motor assembly. But it was sold-out @ Sears (both online and at all stores within 100 miles). The motor was available online, but not at the local Sears store).

Gurgle confirmed that bad motors were not uncommon for Whirlpool/Kenmore dishwashers and that most technicians prefer to replace the motor and sump as an assembly rather than just the motor. You have to remove the motor and sump assembly before you can get the motor off to replace it, so treating the thing as an FRU (Field Replaceable Unit) was not unreasonable.

The odd thing was that Sears' price was among the lowest believable prices (the $68 one on EBay sounded "too good to be true"(tm)). So I called my local appliance store and was told that they could have one for me the next morning. $200. Whatever, I bought it. Chalk it up to the cost of needing it now. Besides, that $20 premium was certainly lower than the trip charge any repairman would tack on.

Of course, there are dishes to do in the meantime. So I tried to reassemble the dishwasher. I couldn't get the grinder back in place. It seems that they expect you to take the sump assembly out first before you go disassembling it. I didn't do that. I just started taking it apart while the main housing was still in the dishwasher tub. The proper way to access the food grinder also requires removing the motor (dire warnings and all). Of course, having not removed the sump, I also hadn't removed the motor. So I put it all back together without the food grinder and made sure to rinse my dishes very well before putting them in the washer.

Guess what? Yep. It was much quieter without the food grinder installed. But it still made the horrible grating noise about half the time. I guess the food grinder put enough stress on the motor to make it complain all the time.

In the end, I got my new sump and motor assembly, got the old one out, got the new one in, and am now doing my first load.

Nice and quiet.

Keeping my fingers crossed that my surgical procedures didn't cause any incontinence.