Me of Little Faith

I posted on Facebook earlier tonight

The problem with being a little bit handy is that your wife can encourage you into doing things you'd rather not.

Why would I rather not? I'm afraid I'll fail. I'm afraid I'll get so far and then get stuck. I'm tired. I'm weary. The sky is already falling. I have my schedule and plans and this is not on it.

But for whatever reason, and I had a few theories:

1. She hadn't seen the instructions I'd seen.
2. She didn't want something else broken.
3. She needed me to go away and stop being stressed and in a bad mood near her.
4. She's a better judge of what I can and can't do than I am.

So, I emailed the instructions to my trusty iPhone (the printer was non-operational - it's not broken, just not available at the moment) and went down to the laundry room and started taking apart the washing machine.  (I took photos as I put it back together - I want to do my own instructions later, apparently the broken wire is a common occurrence on these machines.)  I wasn't convinced of anything at this point, but Lori said I could, with a promise that she'd come down and help if I needed.

The instructions were a little challenging, but I managed to disassemble the washing machine and get to the thermistor.  (Still not sure what one is.  I ought to look it up but I think I'm not going to.  I'm feeling a little stubborn.)

I was trying to figure out how I might then remove it and even if I was able to, what next?  Not like  Thermistor Depot is open this late on a Sunday.  That was another of my grumbles... if it were the start of the weekend I might be able to ask my friend Corey to help me.  He's a very handy guy who happens to be an electrical engineer.  The kind that can solder together a circuit board and then write the software to make it do cool stuff.

As luck would have it, as I'm contemplating and wiggling the thermistor or the rubber casing that it's behind or something (since I don't know what it is) when Lori comes down to tell me that Corey's just texted her to ask if he can help.  I turn away to talk to her and then I turn back and there it is... one of the leads going into the connector going to the thermistor is broken and lose.

I snap a photo, email it to him and then call him.  He asks me some questions about the plug and explains how it ought to work.  I couldn't exactly do what he was suggesting.  I don't know if I didn't have the right tool or what.  But I managed to get the wire reconnected.  Plugged it back in and now the problem was gone.

And then I realized I wanted a photo of the error.  So I unplugged it, got the photo, plugged it back in, but the  problem was back.  Brilliant.  I had jostled it enough to mess it up.  So I had to cut off the electrical tape and try again.  I struggled quite a bit, stripped off some more wire, jammed it in good, used some of the sheathing from the original broken wire to wedge it in really good.  Taped it up and tried again.  Ok, back in business.

Started reassembling.  Went pretty quickly, except for one step that I needed Lori to help me with.  And now there's a load of whites running now (40 minutes elapsed, 15 minutes remaining).

I'm pleased that it all worked out great, and I'm grateful to Corey's assistance, but more than anything, I'm grateful for Lori's faith in me.