Reflections of Nature

It’s Wednesday….and this Wednesday turned into a strange old eventful day…I like it to that classic Beatles song…”A Day In The Life, (of a Blipper)  but a bit more down to earth as I wasn’t counting holes in Blackburn Lancashire or going into a dream.  Please read on if you dare.

As it was a bright sunny morning, I decided that as the wind had dropped and there was a little warmth courtesy of the sun, that I would install  one of our new outside lights (a bit of nagging was also a contributory factor) – this one was going to be straight  forward, as it was “off with the old and on with the new”.  But when is anything that straight forward?

First of all, I wanted to remove the old glass housing (a bit of weight in that glass) to avoid any glass smashing should the old fitting accidentally drop on the patio when I removed it from the wall.  The only problem was that the four screws retaining the glass appeared to be welded to the bracket.  Not surprising I guess, as it’s been there since the house was built 30 years ago, so time to call in some help courtesy of WD40.  A few quick sprays of that, and then let it soak in for several minutes and….No that didn’t help no matter what screwdriver I chose, so I abandoned the manual way and brought in some re-enforcements via the power driver.  Even that struggled for a few minutes but eventually it was strong enough to turn those welded screws.

With the heavy glass unit now lying on the grass,  it was onto the wall bracket itself and this time, the power tool was the first choice…no point in messing about, but once again, it was a bit of an effort…it struggled. 

So, with the old bracket now dangling down the wall, the only thing left to do was disconnect the wiring from one of those little plug things…just the three tiny screws for “live” “neutral” and “earth”. But it is generally guaranteed that if there is more than two screws, there will always be one with a buggered head that simply will not turn. An so it was in this case.  Only solution was to just cut the wire and discard the whole thing. (In case you are wondering, the power was already turned off) 

Now it was time to fit the new light, but whereas the old light had holes drilled into the mortar, the layout of the backplate on the new fitting meant a holes had to be drilled in the brickwork, but luckily, my trusty deWalt power drill was up to the job and after another thirty minutes of screwing and ensuring the backplate was totally level and then putting the wires in place , the new unit was up and working, much to the delight of Mrs IU who stood back to admire her purchase.  One down, two to go, but they’re for another day as electric wiring is involved.

So, with lunch time approaching, it was time to put all the tools away and sit down to watch the lunchtime news and enjoy the fruit of the day and then put the car back in the garage and have a relaxing afternoon doing whatever.  But no such luck. 

As I went to get in the car, I noticed the offside front tyre had gone down… again…something I first noticed a couple of months ago but did not think too much about it as it was a brand-new tyre and wondered if it was perhaps the valve playing up.  Back then, I put some air into it, making a mental note to monitor it during the next few weeks and over the course of two months, all seemed fine…it seemed just like the other front tyre… until this afternoon. 

Now it was off to my friendly local garage who told me to leave the car with them and they would look at it straight away and suggested I return in an hour. Well at least I could have a little walk and see if I could photo something for today’s blip.

A couple of questions played on my mind - was it a nail in the tyre, which may have meant another new tyre (these things aren’t cheap) or a faulty valve?  

Well, it was neither but something to do with the wall of the wheel.  Apparently, over time, the metal can corrode causing a miniscule gap between wheel and rubber, which requires the wheel  to be sanded down in the offending area and then applying a bead sealer before remounting the tyre.  Who would have guessed it?  Now it was time to head home for a nice cuppa and £25 worse off.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this “War & Peace” epic and if you gave up halfway through, I cannot say I blame you.  Hopefully, you will like the photo for WideWednesday.