to Lowes, my nice organized bedroom torn apart…and I finally have a working fan again.
Today’s saga begins a couple of weeks ago, when my ceiling fan became stuck in the high position. (Luckily, since I find it very difficult to sleep at night without it.) Unluckily, this meant the only way to turn the fan off for the now-chilly dayswas at the wall switch which meant zapping the light switch as well. I had a slider switch I’d planned to put on the kitchen fan/light, and I thought, since the thing was stuck in the “on” position, that I could put it in and problem w/b solved.
Wrong. I got into the package and the wall and realized (which I’d have known if I’d thought about it first) that slider switches like that require separate lighting for fan and light. So…no can do. So…put that little task on hold.
Went to Chip’s and while at the Home Depot for fixit-toys for his place, I thought of my switch. Asked the section guy about it and he handed me a nice little switch gizmo that cost me a couple of dollars. Looked pretty straight forward, so I bought it and carried it across the state home with me.
Wrong part…which I realized after I’d dug into my light. I needed a four way to accommodate the light fixture and he’d sold me (without asking, and I didn’t think to say) a three way.
Sigh. I’m now sans fan night #1. So…next day I’m out, I go to Lowes, which is much nearer to us than HD, and pick up the right piece. They have only one left on the shelves, so even tho it was obviously a returned item, I took it home with me.I should mention, this was only one small part of a bunch of errands I was running, so I got home exhausted, unloaded the car, and headed back up onto my bed (the fan is right over my bed) and once again tackled the problem.
This was a different kind of switch. Instead of leads that you twist onto the old wires and cap, you’re supposed to stick an unfolded paper clip into this tiny black hole to flex a connection spring, extract the wire from the old switch and repeat the process on the new switch. I’d already cut a couple of the wires from the old switch preparatory to putting in the original replacement, which, recall, used the twist and cap method, so I tried this extraction method on a third and discovered the wires had been soldered together. “I’m in trouble,” thought I, and oh, I was right.
I had no idea HOW right.
I tried the first wire into the “L” for light slot. The paperclip slipped in without resistance. So did the wire. Both slipped right back out with equal ease.
Doubled trouble. The spring was broken. Hmmm…I wonder why this little item had been returned? With another trip to Lowes looming in my near future, I began to play with the other wires, trying to get them to slip into these little slots….all without overmuch luck. Mind you, I’m doing all this mostly blind as I’ve left the fan attached to the ceiling and am working overhead, while standing on the superior footing of my mattress.
Finally, I take the switch down and try the process with a spare bit of wire. Those tiny wires, no matter how tightly twisted, are just collapsing when I try to work them in past the paperclip.
Oh joy. Another night with no fan. This time, I get smart. I bring a floor fan up from the basement, so at least I get some sleep.
Have I mentioned, I was doing all this on Wednesday because I had a migraine and couldn’t work on the computer?
Lesseee…..Yesterday. We went skating, then made another trip to Lowes where I exchanged the switch (I’d called them, and indeed, there were a bunch more squirrelled away in a drawer.) impressing on them several times that I was returning this thing because it was broken and please not to restock it and get some other schmuck as confused as I’d been. Anyway…I went to the lighting department and got my new part, then went to the attendant to get help as to why I couldn’t get the other one to work. She hadn’t a clue. So I went the the electrical department, found another service person and he hadn’t a clue either, but he went after a paperclip and scrap wire and we figured it out.
Sort of. The wire he used had much larger individual filaments, but at least I saw that it could, indeed, be done, and that I was theoretically doing everything right.
Back home to put it in. It works with a lot of futzing. I turn it on, and lights! fan! But, while I’ve been working, I really haven’t liked the way the whole contraption was wiggling against the ceiling. So…I decide, I’d better check the box. I try to shortcut and just slip the housing down…but this is the one fan I have that slipping the housing free makes the whole fan fall off.
Bombed!
Whoops. time to go skating.
TBC
I use a CD for the same purpose. It’s here, but the demo track is wrong:
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Cape-Cod-Summer-Rain/dp/B0000009V7/ref=sr_1_2
It’s just the sound of rain falling for 60 minutes and a few seconds. I put it on repeat and play it all night. It uses less power, and doesn’t cause drafts. (And it’s probably cheaper than your new switch, much less one of those white noise generators.)
I read an article a bit ago that white noise generators (including your fan and the CD) are as effective as drugs for sleep problems–but you probably know that. :)
Oooo…neat. A full hour of recorded rain (as opposed to the fractal sound generators) might actually work. I can’t use music. I love listening to it too much, and it keeps me awake. The switch cost only a couple of dollars, but the gas going back and forth easily doubled the price! Fortunately, any trip from this house to Lowes is a multi-purpose operation! Oh…drugs for sleep don’t help me at all.
I am so with you on the ceiling fan at night thing. My spouse says, Oh, you have the fan on? ugh. But having it on all night all year round is the difference between comfort and discomfort. worth any effort to get it to work right. It has to be quiet, and efficient. good luck with that. And good sleeping!
I would think spousal units would definitely be into them! Sharing a bed with toasty little Efanor is hard (or hot) enough!
We have gone through 3 standalone fans before I finally got around to installing a ceiling fan in the bedroom. Yes, I believe it is obligatory that the fan will wiggle off the annoying little hook they give you to hold the motor while you fiddle with wires. The first time it happened in the living room, fortunately I had just finished with the wires, and they held it up long enough for me to jam it back onto the hook. The second time, I was in the bedroom, and it bounced on the mattress, luckily missing me.
We set the a/c on 78 or so on timer for 3-4 hours, then let the fan keep us cool the rest of the night. Works pretty well.
The stupid thing for me was, it didn’t wiggle off, I just forgot that it was being held up by the collar! I undid the collar and bang. I have two different kinds of mounts I’ve encountered. The silly hook and a nice complete collar that supports the fan under the decorative collar. I thought this one was the second kind. Ahem. I was wrong.
I became addicted to ceiling fans when I moved to OKC. The one in question has been with me through three moves. I have crackle-finish black oriental furniture in my bedroom and this is a really nice, fairly simple black and gold with white oriental-style light shades. I think it’s a Hunter. Whatever, it’s a good fan. I think I’ll go into mourning if it ever dies for real.
Hi Jane, did you fix the blogsite-header as well as the ceiling fan? It looks fine right now, on the laptop with the slow phone modem at home, in Mozilla Firefox. I can even see the link to the Pub. Or is the fault in the old IE and screens at my workplace?
By the way, did you see my ridiculously long posting in the Pub? I put it there because it didn’t belong in a thread, it’s not very interesting for anyone else, and you can remove it after you’ve seen it. I’m going to 3D-paper-pictures-class again on monday evening, and if the oriental-elements one I found is not to your taste I can return it.
Isn’t it cold, sleeping with the fan on in autumn or winter, where you live now? I recollect hearing about lots of snow, and you two not heating the house much – add a breeze in your bedroom and I’d expect to be shivering and constantly plagued by colds & such. Even without a fan, and with hardly any snow most winters, I like my hotwaterbottle in bed as soon as it gets colder.
And then you go skating in a cold ice rink for a hobby! I admire the energy you have, to do all these things and stay warm as well, but however do you manage? 
I have a hot water bottle, too. Its name is Efanor!
I’m nuts. I keep the fan going for the air movement and the sound, then I bury myself under the two quilts and my cat. When it gets really cold, I put on socks that invariably get ditched before morning.
Didn’t touch the header.
Sorry, I still can’t get the hang of adding smileys. You’ve even provided them ready-made, and I tried to drag them into the post above, and it just caused strange links to appear. I tend to sound long-winded, heavy-handed and pompous when I read my own posts, and thought a smile might help declare that it’s lightly meant.
I must say, after trying to contribute my two-cents-worth occasionally here, I’ve developed even greater admiration for the way you and CJ write. That books which are polished and edited before we get to see them can be very well written is an admirable talent, but you even manage it in something as ephemeral as a blog – it’s interesting, funny, sometimes exiting or suspenseful, or sad (I was sorry to hear about the littlest koi), and somehow you always manage to give it the right touch so that it’s a pleasure to read.
You come across as sweet and kind, not pompous at all! But smilies are fun! I wish I could get a program that would let me use the kitty emos instead, but I haven’t. (Actually, I guess they’re called “onionheads” but they look like kitties to me!)
Re: the posts. Thanks! I try. Carolyn is truly amazing at this vignette thing. I write long posts which I edit spottily; she can pack serious entertainment into a single paragraph that she dashes off in a few minutes! And usually, by the time I get around to posting, she’s already handled the crazy day moments better than I could ever hope to. Love her rendition of yesterday’s powerline saga. I keep telling myself that she’s had a lot more years of practice, but after twenty years of writing, that excuse is getting pretty thin. I think she’s just that good.
I wish Lynn would get on the stick and start posting (in all her copious spare time). She’s much more cautious about editing before posting, but she’s done some hysterical pieces for emails, that I don’t think ever made it online. She’s a NewYorker born and bred who has relocated to Florida to be near her folks and her observations on her new home are …wonderfully unique.
We were very sorry to lose little Rukia. She was turning into a very pretty little fish. Carolyn feels it particularly, because she’s the one who noticed the odd behavior, thought about pulling her, then hesitated until checking on the internet. I was blissfully ignorant.
OTOH, thank goodness for the internet! I’m sure that won’t be the last time the situation comes up and now we know what to do. I don’t know why that little piece of info isn’t in every pond/koi-raising help site, but thank goodness someone had it.
I rarely have problems sleeping but, when I do I listen to Bach, especially Art of Fugue, Goldberg Variations, or Musical Offering. Following and separating the parts sends me right off.
Hanneke, to add the smileys just click on the one you want. It will show in your message as a description with colons on either side. Once you hit “submit comment” it will post as a face.
Jane, I noted to CJ but will to you as well……I think you must live in a special part of Washington with a time zone that has several more hours than the usual 24 the rest of us have.
Regrets for the little koi.
A friend took his grandkids fishing…came back with a box turtle and a bass…grandson released bass into fishpond….bass proceeded to eat ALL the koi and other pretty fish and is now living down under the plants….must be finding enough to eat as from glimpses caught appears to be growing….and is way too wiley to be caught. MORAL: DO NOT PUT BASS IN YOUR FISH POND!