After Tuesday night’s adventure with the spiders, I just wanted a quiet day Wednesday.

That was not to be. First thing Wednesday morning, an alert revealed the 500GB secondary hard drive was dying. I had been expecting the failure for a while. You don’t trust a drive with important data that is 6+ years old, it was used mostly for temporary files while working on videos. It had just started having some minor issues. So, a cursory check with the smart-drive software revealed the main 1 TB drive, that came with the computer 6 years ago, was showing “pre-fail” for three statistics. It too is beyond safe life limit. So I need to give up, and replace the two drives. Actually, I just need to plug up a whole new computer to the monitor. 

screaming noises

Sitting there pondering crawling under the desk and removing the drive, the office light decided to turn on by itself. I looked at the switch, and it was in the off position. After about 10 seconds, the light went back off. This occurred twice while I watched it. Wonderful! That indicates a short, which could cause an arc, which could cause a fire, you get the picture. I hate working on house wiring, I always get shocked somehow. I can work on most things, but I have a mental block for house wiring. So I spent the morning checking YouTube videos. Had it been a simple switch circuit no problem. But no, it wasn’t. When I cut the power to the room, the small UPS, which was purchase about 8 years ago, but tested fine a week ago when I moved the office around, decided to start making screaming noises, and beeps. The “replace battery” light was on. The buzzer/beeper sounded like someone had it by the throat. Still, not bad for a UPS with an 8-year-old battery, to have passed the battery self-test a week ago. I silence the alarms on both UPS units.

The light switch in the wall was shot, it was a shallow mobile home one piece unit. There were 4 spare new switches in my parts box, not a single wall box to mount the switch in. So, a trip to Walmart was in order.It’s starting to get quite hot in the office.double chirp starts on the large UPS… Getting back home, the new switch box was too big, so I enlarged the hole with the jigsaw. Once I tried to install it, there was a 2X4 wall stud behind it liking only another 1/8 inch to fit flush.

So I started a new area to mount it in (at least I was working with thin paneling). Halfway into cutting out the new hole, the jigsaw decided this was its final day, I finished the hole with a pocket knife. While attaching the wires, firmly I might add, the screw driver slipped, and I stabbed a nice star (Phillips head) shape in my left hand. Michelle patched me up.

double chirp starts on the large UPS…

Time to restore power to the office. The smaller UPS resumes its weird gurgled scream when I turned it on, then silence. No power on the UPS side (battery) so I transfer the plugs to the always-on side. The larger UPS comes on fine. All three computers and other items for the internet come on okay. I’m 20 minutes into working on a program, and a double chirp starts on the large UPS… Early warning that the battery probably has 2 weeks of life left. At least it’s Friday!

Comments welcome,