Jury-Rigged or Jerry-Rigged Broken Broom Handle Repair?

I was out using the manual edger around our lawn today. When I finished that and started sweeping up the grass cuttings, my broom snapped off at the brush cap. The pole is a thin steel shaft and the end that fit into the cap of the brush was rusted through.

After I finished sweeping using a push broom, I figured I’d have to buy another broom. Then I got curious about whether I could fix it. There are a couple of terms for repairs that might fit here.

Jury-rigging means a make-shift repair that works. Jerry-rigging is slightly different and refers to a repair that is not just home-made but carelessly done.

I checked the internet and found a YouTube which described a fix for my broken broom. It looked very similar. But I would have needed to go out to the hardware store and buy either a pipe-fitter or a hacksaw. The instructions also called for using a drill to make a pilot hole for a small screw.

I thought it would be cheaper and faster just to buy a new broom. But the more I thought about it, I got an idea for a temporary fix. One element of it is how you would fix a loose shaft in a push broom. You just turn it around and bang it into the floor and it jams the pole into the brush handle hole.

What I did first was to think of what tool I had which might help. Because the end of the handle that fits into the brush cap was rusted out, I used a pair of tin snips to trim off the loose rusty fragments. That took off about an inch of the shaft.

I pushed the shaft into the brush cap, turned the broom upside down and jammed the shaft back into the cap. The broom was a little shorter but it was usable. And I didn’t have to run to the hardware store.

Now is that jury-rigging or jerry-rigging? Just like the two words probably derive from each other, the job was a little of both.

I’m still going to need a new broom because I’m not sure how long the fix is going to last.

Two Vaccine Jabs in One Arm or One in Each Arm?

There were headlines about whether it’s better to get the flu shot and the Covid-19 updated booster in one arm or one in each.

It doesn’t matter. Sena got both in one arm. Mine were split. I think it depended on the preference of the person giving the shots.

The main thing is that you consider getting them, at least. That part is up to you.

Computer Crisis Progress Report

The title of this post is supposedly about progress toward fixing my Dell computer, the one with a mini-helicopter noise in the tower. The Tech drove to my house yesterday from Ouad Cities. He had the parts the Agents ordered for fixing the noise in my PC tower.

The parts were wrong. He drove an hour to get here and was done in about 15 minutes. He looked and listened to the noise before and after removing the case cover. He knew right away it was not a software problem. He ordered the right part and now the next step is for him or another Tech to return on Monday to do the job.

There are Agents and Techs working for Dell. For 2-3 days, Agents pestered me with software shenanigans, even to the point of insisting I reset my PC. Agents never looked at my machine. I sent them the video of the PC and its racket. I’m not sure they listened to it.

I think the Dell Company pays Techs more money than it pays the Agents. That’s probably why Agents spend more time with customers, maybe distracting us with chores like PC resets.

But I’m trying to look on the bright side. The Agents are polite and trying to be helpful. They evidently know a lot about software, which can create problems for which they have a long list of suggestions. The Techs know how computers actually work as machines.

It’s a little like the difference between a couple of the reality TV shows (though the analogy is not exact). Compare the heavy wrecker operators (the tow truck guys) on the shows Highway Thru Hell and Heavy Rescue 401 to the Bigfoot researchers on the show Expedition Bigfoot.

The tow truck guys focus on getting the Canadian highways open and do it with their hands, hooks, chains, and heavy trucks. They have to know something about the physics of the job. It looks real.

The Bigfoot researchers know a lot about Bigfoot lore and what little science there is about it. The only Bigfoot you’ll ever see on the show is a doll the size of GI Joe pinned on a researcher’s backpack.

Keep looking up. You don’t want Bigfoot to drop out of a tree on you.

Look on the Bright Side

Yesterday was the first day of Autumn. Happy Autumn! Was that too cheerful? You know, I used to watch the show Monty Python’s Flying Circus years ago. I thought it was outrageously funny.

What reminded me of the show was Sena telling me that on Wednesday night, a member of the Flying Circus cast, Eric Idle, was on The Masked Singer, one of her favorite shows. I didn’t watch it. He was Hedgehog and sang the Beatles number, “Love Me Do.” Eric said something about how you should look on the happy side of life. He mentioned there was song with that title.

We looked it up and found “Look on the Bright Side of Life.” It’s a catchy tune and reminded me of Monty Python’s Flying Circus attitude. I guess Eric Idle wrote the song and sang it on The Life of Brian.

While the song seemingly is about looking steadily on the bright side of life, it has that slightly edgy, ironic attitude to it which was typical of the Flying Circus.

While some think that the Covid-19 pandemic is over (not mentioning names), there’s probably a more balanced way of looking at that and other challenges in life. The PennStateExtension published an article on June 12, 2020, “Realistic and Optimistic: Managing Mindset in Challenging Times,” by Suzanna Windon, Ph. D, Assistant Professor, Youth and Adult Leadership, and Mariah Stollar, Former Part-Time Research Assistant, Penn State University.

Their list of ways to look on the bright side while being mindful of potential pitfalls attributable to things like overweening pride and fantasy are good to remember in these trying times (see original article by the authors for full details):

  • “Practice mindfulness. 
  • Observe and adjust your patterns of thinking.
  • Believe in yourself, but do not underestimate challenges. 
  • Look forward to the future, but be realistic things may not quickly change. 
  • Keep yourself informed, but limit media intake.
  • Reflect on messages you are sending to employees, volunteers, and loved ones. ” 

    In other words, look on the bright side but don’t kid yourself.

    Update on Computer Crisis

    This is an update to my post yesterday about the latest computer crisis; the one about the mini-helicopter noise in the tower on my relatively new Dell XPS 8950.

    Incredibly, the parts have been ordered. I can’t tell if they just ordered them today or what. The technicians will arrive sometime tomorrow and they’ll bring the parts with them. If the parts have just been ordered today, it’s not clear to me how the technicians could have them by tomorrow.

    That suggests they may already know (or already have known) what the hardware problem is. That again makes me wonder why I had to jump through umpteen software juggling shenanigans for the last couple of days.

    I guess I should be happy that I’m getting a quick response. We’ll see how it turns out.

    Another Computer Crisis

    Another day, another computer crisis. I’ve been hearing this mini-helicopter noise from my PC tower for a while and finally contacted the manufacturer’s computer support center on the web.

    I have hopped through many hoops in the past couple of days, including resetting my computer. Remember I had to do that with Sena’s computer?

    How can a noise which seems to be a hardware problem (a rattle in the tower) be a software problem? I don’t know.

    The most recent request from support services was to make a video of the noisy tower. Yes, I said video. So, I took the video, with enough audio (I hope) to convince people that the problem might be something physical inside the machine.

    I’ve got my fingers crossed.

    Hot Weather Today

    Special Weather Statement for Iowa today:

    “Heat Index Values Between 95 and 100 this Afternoon…

    Unseasonably hot temperatures are expected through the afternoon today, ranging between 90 and 95 for most. These hot temperatures will combine with dew points between 65 and 70. Thus, yielding heat index values between 95 to around 100 through the afternoon.

    If you plan to be outside, avoid prolonged exposure to the heat or strenuous activity. Drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration.”

    ‘ay, this here be international talk like a gentleman o’ fortune day

    The title of this post is a translation of “Hey, This is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.” I used a Pirate Speak translator to generate it.

    Sena reminded me about this holiday, which got started back in 1995 by a couple of guys from Albany, Oregon.

    She says she heard about it on the Mike Waters radio show this moring, Waters Wake-Up on the Iowa radio station KOKZ 105.7. Sena either heard Waters call it National Pirates Day or she misheard him. She also said that Waters denied that any pirates ever said “Arrr,” back in the heyday of pirates.

    I beg to differ, arrr, Matey! The Wikipedia entry says that the dialect was real and probably was based on the dialect of sailors from West Country in the southwest corner of Britain.

    Sena and I couldn’t find any holiday called National Pirates Day. I did find National Meow Like a Pirate Day, which, interestingly, is also a holiday today. It got started in 2015.

    But the main event be international talk like a gentleman o’ fortune day—which I darn nearrr forgot!

    I have a dim memory of writing a blog post using the pirate translator several years ago. It was on a different blog, which I canceled in 2018. I didn’t keep that particular post. I think the topic was teaching internal medicine doctors and medical students about delirium so that they would know when they actually need consultation from a psychiatrist.

    So, in honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I’m going to post a piratical translation of one of my similar posts from way back in 2011:

    “Do ye ‘ave to be interested in psychiatry to volunteer fer the delirium prevention project?”

    “I’ve been thinkin’ about what a couple o’ the medical students said when I broached the idea o’ some o’ them volunteerin’ to participate in the multicomponent intervention o’ the delirium prevention project.

     they said that there the first an’ second yearrr students might want to volunteer—especially the ones interested in pursuin’ psychiatry as a career.

     now think about that there a minute. Why would ye necessarily need to be interested in psychiatry? ‘ere be a few facts:

    1.Delirium be a medical emergency; it just ‘appens to mimic psychiatric illness because it’s a manifestation o’ acute brain injury.

     2.The most important treatment fer delirium be not psychiatric in nature necessarily; the goal be to find an’ fix the medical problems causin’ the delirium.

     3.Many experts in delirium ain’t psychiatrists; the authors o’ the new book “delirium in critical care”, valerie page an’ wes ely, ain’t psychiatrists—they’re intensivists.

     4.Some o’ the best teachers about delirium be geriatric nurse specialists an’ geriatricians.

     I thought that there by reachin’ aft further into a physician’s trainin’ career, I would find people less biased toward thinkin’ o’ delirium as a primary mental illness. It turns out that there bias runs deep in our medical education system.

     it isn’t that there psychiatrists shouldn’t be interested in studyin’ an’ ‘elpin’ to manage delirium. Psychiatrists, especially them specializin’ in psychosomatic medicine, be among the best qualified to inform other medical an’ surgical disciplines about the importance o’ recognizin’ delirium fer what it is—a medical problem that there threatens the brain’s integrity an’ resilience, raises the risk o’ mortality by itself regardless o’ the medical problems causin’ it, prolongs medical ‘ospitalization, an’ makes discharge to long term care facilities more likely, especially in the elderly.

     delirium be a problem fer doctors, not just psychiatrists. So it makes sense fer all medical students, regardless o’ their goals fer career specialty, to be interested in learnin’ about delirium.

     delirium be also a problem fer nurses, who frankly ‘ave led the way in education about delirium fer many years now. You’ll find few experts pointin’ to the american psychiatric association practice guidelines fer the treatment o’ delirium as the ultimate authority these days—because they’ve not been updated formally since 1999. All one ‘as to do be spell out “delirium prevention guidelines” in web browser search bars an’ choose from several sets o’ free, up-to-date guidelines that there be supported by the research evidence base in the medical literature to within a yearrr or two o’ the present day. Some o’ the best ones be authored by nurses.

     so maybe the pool o’ volunteers fer the delirium prevention multicomponent intervention might be nursin’ students.

     on the other ‘and, from what pool does the ‘ospital elder life program (help) recruit volunteers? an’ the australian resource center fer ‘ealthcare innovation multicomponent program, revive (recruitment o’ volunteers to improve vitality in the elderly, ‘ow do they do it?

    they think outside the box an’ include people who care about people. That’s the really the key criterion, not whether one wants to be a psychiatrist or not.”

    ‘appy international talk like a gentleman o’ fortune day, arr, matey!

    Are Safety Matches Really Safe?

    Sena likes scented candles. She lights them with the usual safety matches. They’re called safety matches because you can ignite them only by striking them against the side of the box in which the sticks (sometimes called splinters) are stored.

    Match splinter is an apt name. We found out the hard way that safety matches can be unsafe, especially if they splinter when you strike them against the panel on the side of the box. The chemicals on the match head reacts with the chemicals on the side of the box, which ignites the match.

    Sena struck a match against the side of the box. The lit end of it snapped of and the splinter flew off so fast she didn’t see where it landed. We figured it was on the wood floor somewhere in the kitchen. The match splinter left a trail of smoke which quickly dissipated.

    We looked everywhere but didn’t see it.

    Sena wore a thick robe, which she immediately took off and searched but didn’t find the match splinter. She put the robe back on. A few minutes later, she found the splinter on the kitchen floor. It was not burning.

    Later that evening, while we were watching a football game on TV, she noticed the odor of smoke and found a small hole in the folds of her robe. Thank goodness, it was not still burning but she disposed of the robe. Evidently, the match had clung to her robe briefly before finally falling on the floor.

    It almost makes you wonder if this could explain some cases of spontaneous human combustion. I’m only kidding, as usual. There’s an interesting paper (“Debunking the Spontaneous Human Combustion Myth” by Angi M. Christensen) on the web which implicates something called the “wick effect” to explain this phenomenon. Christensen didn’t seem to consider the “splinter effect.”

    The author says her thesis is dedicated to her father, a firefighter whose courage “sparked” her interest in the subject. I think the word “sparked” was unintentional. Maybe not.

    Anyway, be careful with safety matches—they’re not 100% safe.

    The Geezer Survives Another Computer Disaster!

    This is another gripe about computers. I had to reset Sena’s PC because I accidentally crashed it after trying to follow Dell’s YouTube video instructions for how to fix the problem that a lot of Dell computer owners are having: the inability to install or reinstall a piece of software called Dell SupportAssist.

    There’s another ongoing problem which is just as frustrating. It’s another app called DellUpdate. It doesn’t work at all and keeps telling you to reinitiate something called the Dell Client Management Service. It repeatedly fails after only a day or two.

    Both of these apps are related and trouble with installing, reinstalling, and updating have been ongoing for at least a year.

    The Dell YouTube video is a little over two and a half minutes long and explicitly tells you to do something I usually strictly avoid, which is to delete keys from the computer registry. I can find web entries that say you can’t hurt the registry at all on up to warning that messing with even one of the registry keys can cause the earth to explode.

    I tried to restart after deleting 3 folders and 3 registry keys (I couldn’t find each and every one of these) as Dell instructed and got a black screen, a blinking arrow pointer, and a blue rotating circle. The computer failed to boot. Dead in the water.

    Remember, this was after I saw well over 100 comments on the Dell YouTube video, the vast majority of which said the Dell solution was not only not a solution, but caused some computers to crash, necessitating resets and system restores, hospitalizations for nervous breakdowns, zombie apocalypse episodes, and so on.

    What was ironic was that the Dell instructions were very simple. Just delete a few folders and Registry keys. Ha, Ha! The video was only a couple of minutes long. It wasn’t like we were being asked to download the gold star reverse engineered Extraterrestrial virtual dual quad gravity generating drive to be applied to the innards of the computer tower using neutrino multipliers welded with triple strength strips of Miracle Whip (not Mayo!) to the reverse oscillating cooling fans.

    In a panic, I called the Dell support line, knowing that the machine was way beyond warranty. I got a warning on the chat service that if I needed step-by-step instructions, I would be charged a hundred bucks. The Dell chat tech was extremely helpful and obviously worked hard to avoid a step-by-step situation.

    Avoiding that was not so hard to do. I was running back and forth between my room and Sena’s room like a chicken with my head cut off, while also trying to find an empty USB thumb drive on which to download a fresh copy of windows to restart Sena’s machine.

    One of the chat tech’s first suggestions was to turn on the machine by pressing the power button, then immediately start pressing the F12 button repeatedly as soon as the Dell logo appeared on the screen. I have a distant memory of being told to do that after one of my past computer crashes.

    This booted me to the BIOS screen where you can see the diagnostic utility—which mystified me because I have no idea what to do with it. I also got a link to the Dell support page where I could download software to make a USB media copy of Windows to upload to Sena’s computer. I think that actually saved me.

    On the other hand, I unintentionally left the chat tech too long who politely disconnected, leaving very helpful support links.

    I finally booted to the desktop, which amazed me—but didn’t amaze me as much as the crazy font showing up on the icons. They were a series of geometrical shapes which I could not change.

    So, at last I gave up and reset the PC. I couldn’t think of anything else to do. It was not my first rodeo with computer resets. It’s a long process, but it’s mainly waiting several hours while the computer chews up all the old pieces of software that probably interfered with it in the first place over the years, and then finally loads a fresh copy of Windows while keeping the files and folders.

    And after all that, I was able to install Dell SupportAssist and Dell Update, which then worked without a hitch.

    What did I learn from all this? Never mess with a computer registry again—just go straight to PC reset.

    There’s a great upside to this story. Sena’s favorite interactive computer game, Scrabble on CD-ROM (published 1999 by Hasbro), will now play on this machine. I’ve not been able to get it to work for years. Nowadays, I think the only place you can get a copy is on eBay. There’s an interactive computer opponent called Maven who has all kinds of mannerisms and reactions to your game play. She really likes it—until the next time I crash the computer.