The Low Life

Did you wonder where I had gone?  Yeah, it’s been a while.  You’re probably wondering how the month has gone, what with the new budget plan and all.  Well, I’ll tell you, I thought I had failed.  Yes, about the middle of last week, as I was dipping into this week’s grocery budget and thinking to myself, “Okay…that leaves $40 for incidentals NEXT week, which will be okay, because we shouldn’t need a lot…but…dang!  This wouldn’t be happening if I hadn’t dipped into this week’s budget last week!…” I was not convinced I was going to make it.  

Then, this week rolled around.  I somehow hit the grocery sale jackpot and came home with all of these scads and scads of wonderful foods (brussels sprouts, broccoli, milk, cereal, yogurt, potatoes, corn, peas, spinach, vegetarian chicken patties…).  I mean, this was good stuff ~ and more than enough to get by on for the rest of the week.  Justice made vegetable tempura one night, I made curried vegetable soup the next.  We had homemade wheat bread and homemade Hawaiian rolls.  I made broccoli, tofu and noodles for dinner, we put great things like veggie chicken patties and mashed potatoes in the kids’ lunchboxes.  We were living the high life, and feeling pretty danged good about it.

That is, until today.  

Last night two important events occurred.

1. I opened the sliding door of my car to let a child out, and it didn’t click into the “open” position.  The door swung heavily and swiftly into my ankle.  I can barely walk, but haven’t had time to get it checked out yet.  I am still hoping for a miraculous recovery, to be perfectly honest, but my entire foot is numb a full day later, so I am thinking it might be time to check in with the local clinic.  

2. At about 3:00 a.m. (which was really this morning, for those of you paying close attention, but it feels like last night, because I was asleep at the time…I mean, until I wasn’t), I awoke with a start.  Wasn’t sure why, but I felt the need to check the kitchen. Oh, yeah!  I had brewed a small pot of decaf late in the evening, and was afraid I had forgotten to turn it off before bed.  I went to check.  The coffeepot was, indeed, still on, so I turned it off.  Then, I turned around to head back to bed, and realized that there was standing water in both sides of the kitchen sink.  I told Shane, who had worked until stupid o’clock in the morning, and he replied, “grumble mumble grumble-mumble,” which, naturally, I interpreted as, “Don’t worry, honey.  We’ll take care of it in the morning.”  I tossed and turned for a couple of hours until it was time to get kids up for school.  

Shane was surprised to hear about the sink (seems we don’t all remember everything that is said to us while we are sleeping.  Go figure), which had started to leak onto the floor (don’t judge me - - it was 3 a.m.).  He decided to try turning on the disposal to see if the sink would drain.  It did.  Out the bottom.  All over the kitchen.  We threw every single towel we could find on the floor, put a bucket under the sink, made breakfasts and lunches and got kids off to school.  On time, no less.  

Shane did the lion’s share of cleanup, and then I carried out all of the stuff that had been under the sink, pulled up the rugs (yes, we had two small rugs in our kitchen, to cover broken tiles we are still waiting to have fixed) and mopped.  After that, I ran a job to the printer, grabbed a cup of coffee, called property management and waited to hear about when the plumber would be here.  I figured I couldn’t go see the doctor about my ankle, because I would need to be home for the plumber.

At about 12:30, I got a call from the person who schedules his appointments.  She was very apologetic (and called me “honey”), but told me that the plumber would not be over until tomorrow afternoon.

Now, some time after running the job to the printer, I had realized that I had better stop running anywhere.  My ankle HURTS.  I think I was so caught up in trying to get things done that I didn’t bother to pay attention to it, but it is kind of wobbly, and it really, really hurts.  So, as I stood there on my sore ankle, looking forlornly at the dirty dishes (from breakfast and lunch prep) piled on the stove, I made an executive decision.  If we can’t wash dishes until tomorrow afternoon, we won’t use dishes until tomorrow afternoon.  So…THERE!  

I was going to order in tonight, but decided, instead, to get a bunch of sandwich stuff.  Good for dinner, and we’ll have leftovers for kids’ lunches the next day.  The kids were with me, and we might have gotten a little carried away.  We might have also bought some yogurt and fruit…and maybe some hummus…and a little bit of olive tapenade…and paper plates, too.  Compostable, and made from plant fibers, but paper plates, nonetheless.   What can I say?  It was one of those days.  Of course, we know we are very fortunate to be able to say, “Budget, schmudget!” and throw caution to the wind sometimes.  Today, we needed to go over budget and just have a nice, happy, stress-free dinner, with no clean up time.  Some of us cleaned up enough already.  

I had a MacBook Pro with a broken LCD screen…as I told you all about in a previous post.  I went to a local Mac authorized repair center and was given a quote of $550 for the repair.  This is pretty darn high…my laptop is old, bought in 2008 so 5 years old, and I wasn’t quite ready to sink that much money into an older machine.  I mean, all I needed was the LCD replaced, why is that so much money?

So I did some research at the urging of a coworker and found the specific LCD for my computer, available for $199…$208 with shipping. That is a bit less than $550.  But the catch is that I’d have to replace it myself. Further research led me to a couple sites with instructions on how to replace the panel.  I settled on one at ifixit.com… I read the full step by step and was a bit daunted…I’d have to take out 38 screws, and use a razor to separate my panel from the case.  But hey…I replaced a hard drive in a Powerbook, and an iBook. I’ve built a computer or two…so this should be fine.  I ordered the panel

It arrived a few days later.  Found it on the porch after a trip to Phoenix.  It was packed well…wrapped a few times over in bubble wrap. Since my workload was light at work this week, I decided to take it there and do the replacement.  I brought along two toolkits I had…one with small regular and phillips head screw drivers, and the other with all the other small screwdrivers I need for electronics…including the T6 Torx screwdriver I’d need for 8 screws. I brought it into work, cleared off a large area of my desk (the desk is one LONG desk that serves two edit workstations, and the area we use to print DVD labels). It was a bit dark, so I had to bring over a lamp, and aim mine at the general area.  I set out to taking my computer apart.

I removed the battery, 5 screws from inside that compartment, then four near the lid hinge, then four on each side of the computer.  That enabled me to remove the keyboard and surrounding surface. I had to disconnect the keyboard from the logic board. My computer was now in two pieces.

Now, to keep track of what screws went where, I took a large 11x8 piece of paper (too large for the job, really) and wrote down what step I was on, drew a box, and put the screws from that step into that box.  This was a trick I learned from the first time I disassembled a laptop.  There are a LOT of screws to keep track of, and knowing what goes where is VERY important.

I then removed more screws, disconnected wires from 5 locations, and was able to pop off the whole laptop screen from the computer.  (if you want the full blow by blow process, go to the iFixit Link…I don’t feel the need to repeat the entire process). Now my computer was in three pieces. 

Now I needed to separate the LCD from the frame.  First, four screws on either side, then two on the front… then to tackle taking off the protective cover.  This was going to be tricky as I didn’t have the “splurgier,” a plastic piece that helps pry apart the parts you need pried apart, without damaging the parts you are prying.  I had to resort to using my smaller flat head screw drivers, but they did the trick.  Not TOO much damage.  I slowly worked around the case and popped it off.  

When I did, I heard the clatter of small metal pieces.  I looked inside the cover to see two small mounts just floating free.  It took me a while to figure out what they were, where they went. I figured out that they needed to loosely sit tucked into the corners of the panel backing.  They were where the screws on the front went into, and those small parts went under the lip of the back to hold the screen in place.  Getting this back on will be tricky.

Now came the delicate part.  Not that the other parts weren’t delicate. But now came the part where I had to separate the LCD from the metal frame that it was glued to. First I removed the orange static-free tape, and then I had to peel back some black electrical type tape, and then more tape.  Carefully remove the iSight camera wire…disconnect that from the camera, disconnect another wire…OK, done. the glue. I tried the razor…wasn’t getting anywhere. It wouldn’t really fit between. So I grabbed an exacto and tried that…it got in there, but I couldn’t maneuver it well.  So I ended up using delicate brute force.  That seems like an oxymoron…”delicate brute force.” But it was just that…I gently, but FIRMLY, pushed on the back of the panel to push it free of the glue.  That was working, and I was able to get the exacto in there to cut a little of the glue. But really, the pushing alone worked best.  

I heard cracking, and popping…yes, I was damaging the LCD as I removed it.  But it already was damaged, so I wasn’t concerned about damaging it further. But the frame was beginning to bend, and I wanted to avoid breaking that.  So I tried to be even more delicate in my brutishness.  I did eventually get it out, but one side was bent, and cracked a little…not a lot, but a small amount.  Price of doing things yourself, without ALL the proper tools.  

OK, time to put in the new panel.  I didn’t need to glue this one in place…the instructions just said to put it in place and add the screws.  I’m sure some residual glue was there, but not sure if it was important. Don’t’ really need it, the screws held it in place fine.  So I slipped it into the frame, added the 8 screws that held it on the sides, attached the Eyesight camera, retaped the wires, and then…oh, yeah…gotta get this LCD backing back on it.  With those two floating pieces  OK, I tucked them into their corners, snapped the LCD into place and tried to get the front screws in and…they weren’t connecting.  Those floaters moved.  DAMN!  Now what?  My co-worker came over with a large push pin and an idea…use that to reach through the screw hole and try to get them back into place.  After a few attempts, I was able to do so, and screwed the panel into place

REASSEMBLY! 

I reversed the order of the steps, reconnecting wires, putting the screws back in, keyboard connected, back into place…screw screw screw. 

Add back the battery, flip it over, open it up and…  Press the power button.

Computer chimes…LCD panel lights up…and I see the Apple logo…full screen.  SUCCESS!!

Yaay…computer working.  Now I have bubble wrap for stress release. Pop pop pop POP POP POP…until my coworkers politely asks me to please stop, he’s trying to work over there.  

Fine.  And I have this old, and now really cracked, LCD panel.  Do I just throw it away? NO! It contains toxic stuff.  I need to take it to a facility that takes this sort of trash, and that is in Glendale. So, it comes home with me until I dispose of it properly.

Now that I know how to take apart my computer…I’m thinking of replacing the hard drive with a bigger one.  I don’t have many steps…just the part where I take of the keyboard…that gives me access to that…  

Next time.

So, the repair would have cost $550+tax if I took it in to the Apple repair center. Doing it myself cost $208.54.  A savings of $341.46…plus tax.

OH…and another thing.  When I was writing this I closed my laptop lid a little harder than I should.  The monitor then would not come on. So I had to repeat the whole process (well, other than separating the LCD from the frame) and tighten the connection. It works again.

This is hard.  

This month, we decided to try a new approach:  $100 for larger monthly purchases (I call it the Costco money, but, in truth, some went to Costco, some to Shoop’s Delicatessen and some to Leonor’s) and $50/week for incidental purchases.  I thought it would be so easy!  I mean, that’s a hundred dollars more per month than I spent in the first two months, right?  

Well…sorta right.  Turns out, it depends how you use it.  

It’s easy to get carried away when you have a large sum to work with.  I have noticed I didn’t play it quite as close to my chest this week as I normally would have.  So, at the end of week one, I have spent ninety-six of my one hundred dollars, and $49 of the weekly $50.  I have a few things to work with, so I can probably get through the weekend without spending much money on groceries, but I am (stupidly) out of things like milk and dry breadcrumbs.  I want to make quiche for dinner, but I have no milk.  I have leftover sliders from dinner a couple of nights ago, but I ran out of the rolls the kids like to have with them, so I either need to get more rolls, or freeze the leftovers for next week.  I want to get the kind of cheese Kaia likes in her mac & cheese, but I will have to wait until next week, I guess.  I really thought we’d be doing better this month, with the new plan.  I guess I could probably pick up a little milk at the 99-cents store, but I know,  in the long run, it would be cheaper to buy a larger container of milk elsewhere, so it seems like a poor use of money.

Well, I think I will go make some bread.  Maybe I’ll make a few small rolls for the sliders.  

Oh, and I am going to have to get Shane and the kids to make a few more posts.  I’m getting lonely in here.