Relative Something

Lately, I’ve found myself tending to a variety of small projects, with varying degrees of luck in achieving the desired outcomes. One that felt the luckiest and, as a result, the most rewarding involved replacing the mechanism for the kitchen under-sink garbage pail slideout.

When the mechanism we’ve had for years quit working –it had been losing bearings for a while– we ordered a similar one I found online. When I removed the old one, I discovered the particle board was busted up around the back screws from when the trash pail was pulled out with too much weight in it, and it had popped the screws out.

I visualized a solution of mounting the replacement rails to a piece of sheet metal and then screwing that sheet metal into the wood in new, undamaged areas. I only needed two flat-head machine screws to attach the rail frame to the sheet metal, but I couldn’t find anything except wood screws lying around. I imagined I’d have to buy what I wanted from the hardware store, figuring that would be a frustrating search.

On a day when I would be driving past a store, I decided to make one last survey of the shop to look for screws before trying to buy them. That led me to two small cabinets of drawers on a bench in the back that I have no recollection of ever having seen before.

I methodically began cycling through the drawers and was rewarded with exactly what I wanted to find.

I have no memory of where they came from, but I’m happy to have them, and this allowed me to finish the installation of the sliding rig for the under-sink trash bin. Boom.

My less successful endeavor involved replacing a bathroom fan at Elysa’s house. Without being able to find an exact replacement, we were left trying to make something reasonably close work. I couldn’t get the old box out because it had been installed before the ceiling sheet rock was finished. There is no access to the tiny space above the ceiling, so it is going to be a bigger remodel project than I want to tackle.

My project yesterday had me dabbling in my first-ever tubeless tire change on a bike. I had purchased new tires that are more gravel-compatible to replace my road slicks. It has been a long time since I dealt with the challenge of stretching a tire bead over the wheel rim. It got easier with each attempt, thankfully, but my hands and thumbs suffered a beating from the exercise.

Based on the success that I ultimately enjoyed, I’m feeling like I’ve now got the hang of dealing with tubeless tires and the liquid sealant they require. That’s a dramatic difference in experience from a year ago.

Knowing what hardware is stashed in the shop and getting some practice with tubeless tires can surely improve the odds of small project successes.

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