Existential Examen - Day 5

 Yesterday, I tried to repair a decades-old standing lamp.  The tri-lite hadn't worked well for some time, and its flickering was getting under my skin.  A few years ago I'd converted a table lamp from tri-lite to simple "on/off", and I figured I could do it again.

This time, it didn't go so well.  The challenge began when I discovered that the wiring wasn't marked re: which connection went where -- and I decided I could remember.  Not a great idea!

To add to the aggravation, the mechanism that was intended to hold the lampshade was attached below the socket and flopped around, getting in the way of the procedure.

I had to strip a bit more insulation from each wire because the exposed ends weren't long enough to go around the new connections.  That I managed...but...see the paragraph above.  When it came time to reconnect, I couldn't remember which was which!  I tried several combinations -- most of which failed to work.  The last one did it -- badly.  😖

In the end, I trashed the brittle, cracked lampshade, cut the cord from the base of the lamp, and took the entire mess out to the garage for later removal to the dump!

I moved my Daylite standing lamp into position, plugged it in -- et voila!  I have good light over my left shoulder for stitching, as well as for any other reason to have good light.

I don't know why I waited so long to find the simpler solution -- but today, I'm grateful for

• making the attempt to figure something out;
• accepting that what I wanted to do wasn't going to work;
• finding I had what I needed all along (a working lamp); and
• getting rid of the clutter of an old, failed item.

Now I can go forward in clean, clear light.

Ring the bells that still can ring; 

Forget your perfect offering;

There is a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in.

-- Leonard Cohen