Tuesday 02/13/2024
Yesterday I stopped in the Activity room to check out what Ian had reported as a problem with the assistive listening device. The Activity room has a “t-loop”, which transmits the audio from the microphone and zoom room box, to some hearing aids. And there are a couple of little receivers, about the size of an old-fashioned pocket transistor radio, with attached ear-pieces, that can also pick up the t-loop audio. Except one of them didn’t work. It was easy to figure out the problem; it uses a 9-volt battery and the two little springy metal tabs that contact the battery terminals, were badly corroded. Fine, except as I was scratching at one of them with a fingernail and trying to bend the springy contact to have more spring pressure — it broke off.
I took it back to my room and considered. I could see how the little tabs could be pried out and un-soldered from their wires, but what could I replace them with? Among the Youtube channels I watch is the series by Randi Rain, where she repairs old electric toys, and I’ve seen her replace corroded battery tabs. I can do this, I thought. So this morning I headed out at 8am to Ace Hardware where I bought a strip of thin springy brass metal, just the width of the tabs in the receiver. (I was very pleased to find Ace had a nice selection of brass sheet in various sizes, including exactly what I could use with minimal cutting and shaping.) Got out my soldering iron and other tools, and I did successfully replace the two contact tabs in the t-loop receiver, and it worked. I had that all done and tidied up by 9:30am.
Then came the writers meeting. The theme was “road taken or not taken” and several people wrote very touching and interesting essays on points in life where they had made choices. I had no contribution. Thinking about it before, it seemed to me that almost everything I did was determined, me just flopping into whatever came my way with little direction. Now I think, no, there was one point when I actually made a decision to apply to IBM, with life-changing results. So I should have written about that. Oh well.
After lunch it was the second and final rehearsal for the Strollin into the Sixties show. Everything went pretty well.
I wasn’t pleased with the dinner menu and didn’t see anybody around to eat with, so I got in the car and went out. Had pulled pork at Armadillo Willy’s.
Codgerville 