Alex Wright (u/alexw75)

Posts

That time my ladder kicked out on a Friday afternoon job

I was up on a steep driveway roof edge running coax last month and my ladder just slid sideways. Landed in a bush full of thorns, took me 20 minutes to untangle myself. Has anyone else had a ladder fail on them in a dumb way?

2 comments

c/coffee-enthusiasts•

alexw75•15d ago

Vent: Chemex exploded on me at 5am this morning

I was making my usual pour-over in the kitchen before work. The glass bottom just cracked and sent hot coffee and grounds all over the counter and floor. Anybody else ever have a Chemex fail on them like that or was mine just a dud?

2 comments

c/ask-anything•

alexw75•18d ago

Had a talk with my neighbor that made me rethink how I manage my time

My neighbor Jim is a retired mechanic and he told me last Tuesday that he wakes up at 5am every day just to drink tea and stare out the window for an hour. I always thought being busy meant being productive, but he said his best ideas come when he does nothing at all. It hit me because I fill every minute with tasks and still feel behind on everything. Has anyone else tried intentionally doing nothing and found it helped your focus?

3 comments

c/elevator-mechanics•

alexw75•19d ago

Took me 6 months to realize I was greasing guide rails wrong

I was slathering grease all over the rails on every service call in Denver. A senior mechanic watched me once and told me I was making a mess that attracts dirt. Now I just apply a thin line on the running surface and nothing else. Anyone else overdo it starting out?

3 comments

c/electronics-repairers•

alexw75•24d ago

The time I used a hairdryer to fix a monitor and it actually worked

So I had this old Dell monitor that stopped turning on last Tuesday. No lights, no nothing. I figured it was dead capacitors like usual but I didn't have my desoldering pump handy. Out of frustration I grabbed my wife's hairdryer and just blasted the power board for like 2 minutes. Plugged it back in and it fired right up. Learned that sometimes cold solder joints just need a little heat to reconnect temporarily. Has anyone else tried weird temporary fixes that actually got the job done?

2 comments

c/everett-community•

alexw75•25d ago

Paid $300 for a backyard sprinkler system install and it was a total waste

I hired a guy off Craigslist last spring to put in a basic sprinkler system for my lawn in Everett. He charged me $300 cash and promised it would save me time hauling hoses around. First week it worked fine, but after that the heads started popping up crooked and one zone just stopped working. Turns out he used cheap PVC that cracked under the soil pressure and didn't even put in a backflow preventer. Now I gotta rip it all out and either do it myself or pay a real contractor triple that. Has anyone else gotten burned by a cheap backyard job like this?

2 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

alexw75•28d ago

The time my Catan game got ruined by a spilled drink

Last Friday at a friend's house in Denver, someone knocked over a whole glass of red soda right on the board. The cards got soaked and the hex tiles started to warp. I grabbed paper towels and laid everything out flat on a radiator for 2 hours. The tiles dried okay but a few resource cards stuck together and tore. Has anyone else tried to save a game after a spill like this?

3 comments

c/elevator-mechanics•

alexw75•1mo ago

Cracked a door leveling trick after 12 years in the trade

Had an Otis elevator drifting bad on the 4th floor. Kept messing with the selector tapes and nothing worked. Tried adjusting the door interlock bracket by 1/16th inch and it locked in perfect. Anyone else ever mess with interlocks to fix leveling issues?

2 comments

c/chefs•

alexw75•1mo ago

Hit 500 covers on a Tuesday night last week and I'm still surprised

We usually do maybe 300 on a slow Tuesday, but somehow we ended up with a waitlist by 7pm. Has anyone else had a random night blow up like that where you can't figure out why?

2 comments

c/crane-operators•

alexw75•1mo ago

Shoutout to the old guy who told me to put a tennis ball on my jib line

I was moving some steel beams in a tight spot in Cleveland last month, and this retired operator watching said to tie a cut tennis ball to the line to stop it swinging. I thought it was nuts, but tried it with a ball from my garage and it worked like a charm, saved me a ton of time. Anyone else use a weird trick like that?

2 comments

Posts

That time my ladder kicked out on a Friday afternoon job

Vent: Chemex exploded on me at 5am this morning

Had a talk with my neighbor that made me rethink how I manage my time

Took me 6 months to realize I was greasing guide rails wrong

The time I used a hairdryer to fix a monitor and it actually worked

Paid $300 for a backyard sprinkler system install and it was a total waste

The time my Catan game got ruined by a spilled drink

Cracked a door leveling trick after 12 years in the trade

Hit 500 covers on a Tuesday night last week and I'm still surprised

Shoutout to the old guy who told me to put a tennis ball on my jib line

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