ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS
Watts My Line?
“Poof” goes the lightbulb
Electricity and I don’t mix. For some reason, when I turn my mind to electrical repairs, my mind turns to mush. So I was surprised to find myself tackling a problem with an overhead recessed light fixture in our basement rec. room. For years, there had been a loose connection with an occasional annoying flickering from the light bulb. But recently, the flickering turned to darkness and I began to attempt rudimentary repairs.
For the first few days, I periodically pushed the glass plate covering the recessed bulb hoping that this would restore the connection. Sometimes it did, much in the way that a random kick will occasionally fix a malfunctioning television set. But after a while, my taps on the plate failed to elicit a luminous response.
So I bravely stepped into uncharted territory and removed the plate covering the bulb. I pushed the bulb up; I pushed the bulb down. I partially unscrewed the bulb and then screwed it in tighter. Sometimes the light came on and sometimes it didn’t.
My history with electricity should have dictated that I stop there and call in someone who might know what to do — someone, say, like an electrician. But faced with an electrical quandary, the logical synapses in my brain once again gave out. If there’s a…
