Mr. Fix-it
I just opened up an old Pioneer 6-disc CD changer, to see why it wasn't working. This was its final chance at a productive life; if I couldn't figure out what was ailin' the old girl, it would have had to set itself right with its maker (Pioneer) and prepare itself for a long rusting, wedged somewhere between some noisome dirty diapers, warping cardboard boxes and of course, maggot-infested banana peels.
So it turns out that a critical part of CD players is this little thing called a "lens". What's a lens? It's a tiny tiny little piece of precision-cut plastic that focuses the laser into a tiny tiny point. How tiny? Well, it's about the same size as a cockroach monocle, were roaches of the monocle-wearing persuasion. (In my experience with roaches, I don't think this is likely.) Without it, though, the laser can't tell if it's reading Tom Petty's Greatest Hits or a blueberry pancake. The lens was rolling around in the bottom of the player for God knows how long.
After various attempts to figure out how to re-seat the lens into its little lens-holder-thingy, I managed, with the help of some bathroom tweezers, a Q-tip, and some superglue, to get that darned roach monocle back in place. I turn the CD player on, and all of a sudden, it can read CDs again.
Technical genius, I am not. Compared to most of my friends, well, yeah, sure.
The upshot? I'm taking this 14-year-old bad boy to the pawn shop today to see if I can get a sawbuck for it. Probably be lucky to get a fiver. But this is what I do. I spend an hour to make five bucks. I'm sure there's added benefit in there too, such as learning about electronic equipment ca. 1990, or something more generalized like an overall curiosity about the world or the thrill of taking on an obscure challenge.
And I'm trying to bring back the term "sawbuck". A sawbuck is a ten-dollar bill. You know, the one with Alexander Hamilton on it. Or, in the near future, Ronald Reagan. Help me out, will you, and spread the word? (Literally, spread the word? Sawbuck?)
Posted by Matt at July 28, 2004 7:40 AM
