From Adversity Comes Serendipity

We had a bit of serendipity that arose from a tense moment, and it was one of those situations that make you look back in wonder over how life sometimes transpires.

First, a little background.

We’ve had this problem with our kitchen lights that is not really a big deal, but enough to bug me into taking action. Now I’m no expert on lighting, but our kitchen lights flickered all the time, almost as if there was a short. It was not constant, and usually when you first turned on the lights it was fine, but gradually the lights would begin to flicker, and you could usually fix it by simply tapping the dimmer switch or lowering the intensity. JH and his magic bag of tools told me that it was a faulty capacitor or resistor in the dimmer switch that could easily be fixed.

Yeah, right. Easy if you’re name is JH and his magic bag of tools. I figured we could live with a little flickering, which did not last long, and when we were at Home Depot the other day, I bought a new dimmer switch. I couldn’t find an exact match, and had to opt for a rotary dimmer, versus a linear one. I figured the hookup would be the same.

Anyway, I was ready to fix this thing the other day, but was pressed for time. I wanted to get it done before A’s rehearsal, but ran out of time after making lunch and cleaning up and doing all that good stuff. Normally this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but I’ve found that when I put things off, they tend to never get done.

The situation was compounded by the fact that in a moment of carelessness, I ruined N’s domino creation. He and his sister like to make these chain reaction creation which they refer to as “domino effects,” which I think is kind of cute, but I think everything (almost) they do is cute. Either way, they are a little fragile, and once they are disturbed, the whole thing falls apart, just like a domino effect. Go figure.

I ruined the one he was working on, and was he ever mad. I thought he was overreacting a little, but who am I to judge? I wasn’t the one putting the blood sweat and tears into it. Now usually during A’s rehearsal we head over the library and hang out until it’s done, because we don’t have a lot of time, not enough to really do anything.

This time, N was so mad that he didn’t want to go the library, he wanted to go home and re-make his domino effect. I was fine with that, and while he was doing that, I had time to fix the light switch. We only had about half an hour, and I could have easily convinced myself that this was not going to be enough time, but the real-man-in-training in me said to just do it. So I did.

Best of all, whenever I work on a project, it gets N interested, which makes him forget why he was angry at me, and then peace ensues. I love when that happens.

Now we not only have a new switch and no more flickering lights, but we have peace and serenity on the home front.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to NRL for the pics.