Blah, it's Monday.

Okay, I don't really feel too blah... I'd just really rather not have to go to work today, especially because I awoke to find snow on the ground. Just what I need to make for a nice drive to work. Not! Okay, there is also the fact that I woke up at about 2am and never really got back to sleep.

I was having a pretty good start to my Sunday yesterday until the phone rang. It was my dad. When he and my mom came over to Sarah's party on Saturday night, he was dragging his old slide projector. The on/off switch was totally broken and he was wondering about the possibility of fixing that. The funny thing is, he was directing all of this dialog towards my brother. He's a smart guy and all, but fixing something like that is my forte' not his, and I'm pretty sure my folks know that. When they got ready to leave, I suggested my dad leave the projector here and I'd take care of it.
"No, that's okay--I've can take it apart. I've got all the stuff I need to take it apart." he said.
My brother and I made eye contact with each other, rolling our eyes. Both of us noted that he said "take it apart", not fix it. My mom told him to go ahead and leave it for me to look at, but he was adamant and took it with them when they left.
Well, as I said before, the phone rang yesterday. When I heard his voice on the line I knew exactly what was up.
"What are you doing today?" he asked.
"Nothing yet that I know of" I admitted, knowing what was coming.
"I got that thing apart but I can't see what the wires are going to," he said. He just kept repeating himself over and over like he usually does. I told him to bring it over.
When he showed up, he had taken all the screws out of the bottom of the unit, whether they were actually holding the bottom on or not (most were not) which meant some of the components that should have been still anchored to the base were now rattling around. He had all the screws and nuts in a plastic bag and poured them out on the table.
"I don't know where this spring came from" he said over and over, "When I opened it up it just came out."
To make a long story shorter, he had parts neither he nor I knew where they came from or how they fit, parts that were missing, and after all that he still didn't even have the unit all the way apart yet at this point. I spent almost an hour just analyzing the fit of everything and making sure I could get it together without damaging anything. When I had determined that it was doable, we went out and bought a switch at Lowe's that would be a suitable replacement. After cleaning everything I put it all together and checked it functionality. All was well. This projector is a unit from the 50's so it is almost totally mechanical with linkages and stuff going everywhere that interlock with each other. At least it's working again. They have a LOT of slides at their house. The total time was about two hours... Probably roughly twice what it would have taken me to do it if I had started the job myself.

Oh well... That's what happens when you're the "handyman" son.