Ever had a really strange day when things just wouldn’t click?
It started out this morning with a call that my Brother had suffered a Heart Attack in the early morning hours. I get up to get dressed in a hurry and realize that strange crack I heard yesterday (like someone popped their knuckles) from my foot, was apparently the little toe not quite healed and broken again (that was another adventure). I hobble into the hospital and check on my Brother, and then we returned home.
Nervous and trying to take my mind off things, I decide to try to install the TV on the wall of the bedroom. The broken Toe was already hurting but I’d be pacing the floor or standing anyway. I wrestle with the instructions which were pretty clear, except for the critical part of the mounting screws that hold the TV to the swivel mount. “Use the # 8, 6,10,or 11 screws for mounting depending on your TV”. I search all the packets and find # 8, 6, and 11. No #10. The only screws that would work are the #4 ones in the link of sealed screws, next to the screws mentioned.
I mount the bracket to the wall with a little difficulty, as my battery operated drill didn’t have enough “humph” to run the bolts into the wall fully, so I use a ratchet to finish the last 2 inches or so.
I heft the TV, which thankfully is a small 32″ flat screen weighing only about 11 lbs, up and onto the bracket pivot. I then wrestle with the awkward nut, that has to be held with one hand in the bottom of the swivel joint, and screwed into with a long provided screw. After dropping the nut several times and cursing it while searching the carpet for the tiny thing, because the bolt would never “catch”, I realize I am using a Phillips head screw driver when it needed an Allen wrench, located in another packet of instructions we had not reached yet. Of course, had I not had a bad day and paid attention I would have noticed the Allen head on the bolt.
I finally get the bolt to catch on the nut I am trying to hold in the small hole with the other hand, you know, those nice compression type nuts that have the plastic in them that are hard to start anyway?
While reveling in the fact that I beat the skinny bolt and aggravating nut, I notice that the writing on the back of the TV… appears to be “upside down”. “How strange is that!?”, I thought. Then it dawned on me slowly that I had attached the mounting plate upside down on the TV.
Luckily for me I had solved all the previous hiccups prior, so now I could repeat all the installation steps a bit faster.
Of course not to be undone, Murphy’s Law quickly showed back up in the fact that the cable run to the bedroom was dead, It was not hooked up to a live feed, so now I get to figure out who to get to crawl under the house and connect the bedroom cable to the main line splitter, since my broken toe may complain a bit,
Michelle came in the room as I was hooking the inside cables to it. She said, “Are you SURE that mount will hold?” I said sure it will, it is a light TV bolted into the 2X4 inch studs in the wall.
“I just want to make sure it isn’t going to crash down at some point.” she says. “Babe, that thing would hold your Mother.” I say.
The swelling may be down enough by morning for me to see and finish the cabling part.
I just can’t wait for tomorrow. 🙂
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