02/04/2003 @20:23:57 ^21:03:29

Locktacular!

About a week ago Amy (you said you wanted more links, didn't you..?) was talking on her site about how she'd managed to get her window to open by scraping away the paint (damnit, the mental image of her leaning out, making faces at passing traffic, is making me laugh too much again...)

Well anyway the other day I was outside and I found a nail on the floor. It was a good nail, shiny and new, so I kept it ("See a pin, pick it up, all day long, you'll have good luck" - and what is a nail, if not a really big, fat pin, heh...)

Now my bedroom door has a lock on it. Not a proper one with a key, it's really just a bolt in the door handle. But it too was painted into immobility and I'd wondered for years if it could be made once again useful... On a whim, vaguely inspired by Amy's experiences, I fetched the hammer from the back room and set about the paint using the nail as a chisel.

Many loud thumps and bangs, and much flying paint chips later, the lock moved for the first time in at least six and a half years and probably more. Success, but only in so far as you still needed the hammer to move the lock because it was that stiff...Fortunately, I am the proud owner of my very own can of WD-40. So with a liberal quantity applied, the lock now moves stiffly but fairly easily in its housing.

Admittedly there was no point to this wanton destruction of ancient paint, for under normal circumstances I have no need to lock myself in my room. However I was curious, and I don't like to see things that could be functional not being able to be so, especially when the idea enters my mind that they could easily be fixed.

What a coincidence

This evening my mum brought home the car my dad acquired yesterday. Sadly not an Orion LX, in fact it turned out to be a dark red Vauxhall Corsa. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Simon have one just like that.?!