Trust me, you really don't need to read this; I'm just venting in a convenient space.
I didn't get much sleep on Sunday night because I stayed up for the Oscars, so I was looking forward to crashing early last night and making sure I got 8+ hours. Peggy came home early (for once), herself exhausted, and crawled into bed as soon as she could get out of her work clothes -- at 5:30 PM. She slept for about 5 hours while I puttered about doing laundry, cleaning up my hard drive and reading a bit. About the time I decided it was time to crash, she woke back up and essentially began her evening, which often involves (as it did last night) telecommuting into her job and doing what she euphemistically refers to as "homework" until the wee hours of the morning.
I crawled into bed, but despite being exhausted and wanting desperately to sleep, I found myself drifting right on the edge of sleep for what seemed like hours, not quite awake, not quite dreaming. I finally dropped off fully only to get awakened what felt like moments later -- by Peggy, who was shaking me and asking "What did you do to the TV?" As I hadn't touched the TV since the Oscars on Sunday night, I had no idea what she was talking about.
When I was full roused again, I noted it was just past 11 PM and staggered out to the living room to find our TV wouldn't stay on when turned on, and apparently couldn't be changed off one of the alternative inputs during the brief time the screen displayed anything. I ended up spending nearly two hours trying to troubleshoot the problem, to no avail, while explaining to Peggy that yes, "what did you do to the TV?" did count as blaming me for breaking it, despite her mistaken belief that it actually meant "the TV is malfunctioning; please be a dear and and see if you can make it work for me?"
After much poking, prodding and Google searching, I gave up at around 1 in the morning. The best case diagnosis I can make is that the circuit board which actually addresses the screen is dead. The worst case is obviously not the case, as the TV actually turns on and gives us a brief moment of screen life. Also, this morning, Peggy announced she had eventually been able to get both DVD and cable sound through the TV, and after her own research she thought maybe the backlight had just burned out (although that was one of the things I tested for and eliminated -- which doesn't mean I did it right). I'll be calling the manufacturer's support line when I get home tonight, but I'm not holding out hope -- it's an 8-year-old LCD HDTV, very firmly in obsolete territory according to some of the sites I read last night; Sharp didn't even have a manual available for it for download any more. (Oh, yeah, it's a Sharp Aquos LC32D41U if anyone has any advice.)
Anyway, I barely got four hours' sleep before Peggy woke me again by climbing into the shower at quarter to five in the morning -- a full hour and a quarter earlier than she normally does. She'd just turned off the water when my alarm went off. I managed to drag myself out of bed again and go through my morning routine in the usual time, only to find her standing next to me in her coat and scarf as I was shaving, asking me why I was taking so long. Despite denying that she was impatient, she took my car keys, loaded her stuff in the car, started it, and got in. While I was still getting dressed, and drinking the massive cup of coffee I needed in order to be awake to drive.
When I finally got out there, she was still sitting in the car, and hadn't bothered to scrape the ice from the windows, which I had to do.
Oh, and my blood sugar was unusually high this morning, just to add to my stress.
So now I'm at work, on my third cup of coffee (artificial sweetener, of course), and trying hard not to zone out. And feeling more than vaguely put-upon about the last 16 hours or so. If you've read this far, thanks, but you really didn't have to. Like I said, I just needed to spill this out somewhere.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
I didn't get much sleep on Sunday night because I stayed up for the Oscars, so I was looking forward to crashing early last night and making sure I got 8+ hours. Peggy came home early (for once), herself exhausted, and crawled into bed as soon as she could get out of her work clothes -- at 5:30 PM. She slept for about 5 hours while I puttered about doing laundry, cleaning up my hard drive and reading a bit. About the time I decided it was time to crash, she woke back up and essentially began her evening, which often involves (as it did last night) telecommuting into her job and doing what she euphemistically refers to as "homework" until the wee hours of the morning.
I crawled into bed, but despite being exhausted and wanting desperately to sleep, I found myself drifting right on the edge of sleep for what seemed like hours, not quite awake, not quite dreaming. I finally dropped off fully only to get awakened what felt like moments later -- by Peggy, who was shaking me and asking "What did you do to the TV?" As I hadn't touched the TV since the Oscars on Sunday night, I had no idea what she was talking about.
When I was full roused again, I noted it was just past 11 PM and staggered out to the living room to find our TV wouldn't stay on when turned on, and apparently couldn't be changed off one of the alternative inputs during the brief time the screen displayed anything. I ended up spending nearly two hours trying to troubleshoot the problem, to no avail, while explaining to Peggy that yes, "what did you do to the TV?" did count as blaming me for breaking it, despite her mistaken belief that it actually meant "the TV is malfunctioning; please be a dear and and see if you can make it work for me?"
After much poking, prodding and Google searching, I gave up at around 1 in the morning. The best case diagnosis I can make is that the circuit board which actually addresses the screen is dead. The worst case is obviously not the case, as the TV actually turns on and gives us a brief moment of screen life. Also, this morning, Peggy announced she had eventually been able to get both DVD and cable sound through the TV, and after her own research she thought maybe the backlight had just burned out (although that was one of the things I tested for and eliminated -- which doesn't mean I did it right). I'll be calling the manufacturer's support line when I get home tonight, but I'm not holding out hope -- it's an 8-year-old LCD HDTV, very firmly in obsolete territory according to some of the sites I read last night; Sharp didn't even have a manual available for it for download any more. (Oh, yeah, it's a Sharp Aquos LC32D41U if anyone has any advice.)
Anyway, I barely got four hours' sleep before Peggy woke me again by climbing into the shower at quarter to five in the morning -- a full hour and a quarter earlier than she normally does. She'd just turned off the water when my alarm went off. I managed to drag myself out of bed again and go through my morning routine in the usual time, only to find her standing next to me in her coat and scarf as I was shaving, asking me why I was taking so long. Despite denying that she was impatient, she took my car keys, loaded her stuff in the car, started it, and got in. While I was still getting dressed, and drinking the massive cup of coffee I needed in order to be awake to drive.
When I finally got out there, she was still sitting in the car, and hadn't bothered to scrape the ice from the windows, which I had to do.
Oh, and my blood sugar was unusually high this morning, just to add to my stress.
So now I'm at work, on my third cup of coffee (artificial sweetener, of course), and trying hard not to zone out. And feeling more than vaguely put-upon about the last 16 hours or so. If you've read this far, thanks, but you really didn't have to. Like I said, I just needed to spill this out somewhere.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
