Corrections

            About ten years ago we had a bat in our basement. I tried unsuccessfully to remove it, and so, with midnight approaching, I closed the basement door and went to bed. The next morning I found the bat trapped in a wastebasket with no helicopter skills. I easily took him outside and released him. This became my occasionally successful model for making corrections in the world.

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            One evening last week I looked out the window at the solar lights I’d installed (stuck in the ground) to light the way down the stairs to the lake. I noticed that several of the lights were off. When I approached one of them, it suddenly went on. Satisfied that I’d fixed it without touching it, I took a step away and it went off again. Puzzled, I went to check on the other non-functioning lights. I brushed some invisible debris off the sensor on one, and it came on – briefly, until I took my hand away. I suddenly realized that these lights only turned on when it was dark, and at 9 in the evening, it took my shadow to darken them. By 9:30 I’d fixed all the lights.

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            I’m trying to sell a Nantucket basket that I inherited from my mom, and the dealer wanted me to email him some photos. I’d taken some a few years back and stored them on my computer. I spent about an hour using my computer expertise to find it. Then I gave up and rephotographed the basket, and I decided to park those images in plain sight at the top of my computer desktop. I did so, parking them right next to a folder labeled “Basket Photos.” Then I dragged them into that folder with my original photos – problem solved.

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            The GPS on my 2013 Toyota suddenly stopped working. The problem was in the touch-screen. It had happened before about 6 months ago, and the thoroughly trained mechanics at the dealership could not fix it. But a salesman suggested that I slide a credit card around the rim of the screen, and I did so. It worked! A grain of sand or speck of stardust got dislodged, and I was back in business. I rely far too much on my GPS, and I get far too upset when I get lost (something Kim describes as “exploring”), so when my credit card solution (Credit cards solve a lot of problems, don’t they?) didn't work, nor did my fingernail or knife blade, I was ready to trade in my car. But then, miraculously, my fingernail fixed it while waiting for a red light to change. That fingernail saved me about $10,000, as I now figure that this car will be good for another couple of years.

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            “The chain came off of my chain saw. Do you know how to fix it?”

            “Sure, no problem.”

            “Hey – thanks!”