With this story the more appropriate question is how long does it take a grad student to
change a light bulb. The answer is
longer than you would think. One morning
Alex and Jules woke up to find the light in the bathroom was burnt out. (It seems like everything is going wrong with
our bathroom lately.) We had guests coming
that evening so thought we should try and get it replaced. That should be an easy enough task for Alex
who had the afternoon off. We even keep
light bulbs on hand. Of course the burnt
out bulb was one of those new compact fluorescent bulbs (my question is why did
it burn out if they are suppose to last up to 15 years). It also didn’t screw into the fixture like
normal light bulbs but had two prongs sticking out of the bottom. (Please notice the complexity of this
lighting situation as this story unfolds.)
I headed to the store in search of this unique light bulb. After searching up and down the light bulb
aisle numerous times I had no luck in finding a bulb with the prongy things
sticking out. Next I walked down to the
local hardware store to ask professionals about the bulb. The first guy looked at the bulb in
puzzlement and stated that he had never seen anything like that before and then
asked one of his co-workers about it.
The co-worker recognized it and knew they had two bulbs of this type in
stock. One of the cool things about these
light bulbs (probably the only cool thing in my opinion) is it doesn’t matter
if you match the wattages so I chose the higher wattage so our bathroom would
be brighter. I got back to the apartment
and balanced precariously on the edge of the sink as I tried to replace the
bulb. The two prongs fit into the holes
on the fixture and the bulb would light up but it wasn’t a secure fit so any
movement would cause the light to flicker or go off. I thought about using a rubber band or the
handy woman’s secret weapon- duct tape- to get a more secure fit. Anytime I tried to replace the light fixture
cover it would turn off completely and the bulb was actually too big for the
cover to fit back on correctly. This
meant another trek out to the hardware store to see if the other light bulb in
stock would be the correct fit. It was
smaller but I still couldn’t get a constant connection- I tried putting this
bulb in a number of different ways and was feeling very baffled that I couldn’t
replace a light bulb by this time. So I
then turned to Google and YouTube. I
felt pretty stupid searching the phrase “how to replace a light bulb”. I then noticed on the box that the model
number of the bulb was listed.
(Sometimes I feel directions printed on boxes are just silly- hopefully
you know to remove the pop tart from the wrapper before putting it in the
toaster- but directions of how to replace this type of bulb would have been
useful. Instead they just give
directions on how to throw the bulb away—I didn’t even know I needed a special
technique to throw it away but since it contains mercury you do—just so you
know.) I googled the model number and
actually found out more than I ever wanted to know about light bulbs and – drum
roll please—how to replace them. I
jumped back up on the sink counter, twisted the bulb in the manner which the
instructions gave, and wha-la there was light!
I felt almost as proud as if I had created light from darkness like God
did during Creation. So finally after
over an hour and a half and lots of blood, sweat, and tears (literally sweat
and blood and tears on the inside) I had finally replaced a light bulb. Earlier in the week I had shelled out money
for tuition and almost wanted a refund because apparently I’m not getting my
money’s worth if I am struggling with light bulbs. I guess one thing I have learned to do in grad school is write pages and pages about nothing which means I can write an entire post about basic subject material like changing a light bulb.
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