Ever Do Something Dumb And Then Take Three Times As Long To Fix It?

Ya, I haven't either.  At least since 11 AM anyway.  Truth be told, today was a perfect example of 'lack of communication," on my part.  I listened to my instructions but they didn't compute until it was too late.

I had been talking about new garage lights for a long time now since I only had three or four bulbs working out of ten. A friend of mine, Jerry Clark, apparently got tired of bumping into stuff in my garage as well and came through on some new ballasts and bulbs.

The ones I had were obsolete and Jerry mentioned along time ago that he could "get me better lighting" so I could actually see in there.  Yesterday, he called and said he'd come by and help me change it all out.  Jerry's an electrician so he knows what he's doing; I don't.

We set a time for Saturday around Noon and I texted Jerry early and said I was talking the lights down etc and we'd be ready when he got here.  He told me to make sure to not strip them completely because he was going to need some of the wire.  Now since I had in my mind that we were putting up completely new light rigs, I thought that was an odd statement.  Why would I gut them?  I was just going to take them down.

So Jerry pulls up in my driveway and what does he see?  All the light fixtures down and laid neatly on the driveway. Come to find out, like he said, all we were changing was the ballasts and the new size bulbs which are brighter and more energy efficient.  Yup, took them all down for nothing and even bent in half and threw away the covers that hide all the wiring etc.  (Bending those all back into shape now.)

Moral of this story:  Listen to directions!

The author of this story would like to thank Jerry Clark for not beating him senseless and driving away.