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Men and the Art of PC Troubleshooting

PC troubleshooting frustration

 

After 25 years of successful PC troubleshooting, I was almost defeated last week. Almost. I finally fixed the problem. Hooray! But there goes 100 hours of my life that I won’t get back. However, I learned a few more things about PC troubleshooting along the way, and will share them with you here.

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Men and the Art of Lawnmower Maintenance

lawnmower maintenanceDid you ever read the instructions for your lawnmower? How often do you think it needs maintenance? Apparently, I thought that the answer was every ten years. Or, perhaps not.

Most of my life I have avoided diving too deeply into things mechanical, at least when it comes to household chores. Mowing the lawn is such a chore. When I bought my first house, I was given a hand-me-down push mower. It was very hard to push and did not cut very well. In hindsight, I think the previous owner had also followed the ten year maintenance rule of thumb. Since then, I have had a series of lawnmowers that each ran for 8-10 years with no maintenance.

No surprise, then, when my ten year old gas mower failed to start last week. My first thought was to buy a replacement. But it is still early in the summer and hard to find a good sale. Perhaps, I thought, I can fix this thing and at least use it for a few more months. I dug out the manual.

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