Steve came over last night and it turns out he does know how to take broken bulbs out; I just misread his email (he knows how to do lots of other things, so I should have known). Before he came, I realized that if I unscrewed the nut and pushed it up the cable, I might be able to hold the socket with a glove with a rubber palm (I'm sufficiently dehydrated that I have no friction on my hands) and turn the needlenose pliers with the other hand. All I managed to do was to turn and break off bits of the bulb's screw part. That was all Steve could do, too, although he managed it much longer (and I sat in the desk chair and aimed a flashlight up for him), and in the end, we actually had a clean socket! He had to pull the contact up a bit for the new bulb to fit and we had light! Then he picked up the heavy glass bottom and brought it out and I only had two screw tops -- what had I done with the rest? I said "let me check yesterday's pants" and I didn't even have to get to the pockets. When I picked them up in the hamper, the screw tops fell out. So everything is back together and I have light in the dining room again.
The Verizon tech is supposed to come between 8am and 7pm and I realized last night that since I'd been going to sleep at 5am and would have to get up at 7am to be ready if he came that early, I should just stay up as long as I could. About 7am, I pushed back the recliner and went to sleep. Luke woke me up knocking about 3:10 to get my key so he could get our mail and I got up and fed the cats and had meds. The tech has 1.5 hours to get here. Wanna bet?
Tags: dsl
