<\/div>I didn’t get to start building the new computer this week, but it mostly worked out for the better. Parts were supposed to be delivered Monday, but UPS was still running way behind from the ice storm, so my orders didn’t even go out on a truck that day. Unfortunately I can only view that rationally in hindsight because I have had things delivered while the tracking info said they hadn’t even *shipped* yet, let alone made it to the facility they would be delivered from. But on Monday I also found a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 drive on sale at a nearby store (not local, but nothing ever really is when you’re rural). On Tuesday morning I checked again, but it was now listed as Out-Of-Stock. I check another nearby store that *might* have a similar product and found *they* had a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 drive for about the same price.<\/p>\n
Now here’s the funny part.<\/p>\n
I drove the hour’s drive to go pick it up. They can’t find it in the store, and a nice sales associate is apologetic, but explains this happens all the time; their online inventories are unreliable. He checks the entire region and nothing is available. So I go back to the *original* store…and they show they have ONE in stock. They check the stocking area but can’t find it, and send me to the computer department. I can’t find it. I find *every other* NVMe they have, but they don’t even have a *space* for this one. A sales associate sees me standing in one place staring at my phone and offers to help. I show him the exact drive the website says they have. He goes BACK to the SAME STOCKING AREA, and comes back two minutes later with the drive. Had no trouble, it was the right price, everything. He even said they had a couple. (BTW, I won’t name the stores, but they rhyme with Paul Blart and Test Guy.)<\/p>\n
<\/div>By 6:00 PM that evening, I start to suspect I’m not getting my UPS order Tuesday, either. I cook dinner, clean some, get everyone headed to bed. Close some of the blinds, but leave one open facing the driveway because we *have* woken up to UPS deliveries that got left in the front yard overnight. At *10:30* PM, I see headlights coming down the county road. I go out the garage, open the door, and open the back of my Subaru as I figure that will be easier than trying to get at least the big computer case box through the front gate and onto the porch. The driver of the UPS truck sees this, interprets my actions as an intention to drive to the end of my driveway and pick things up from him so he doesn’t have to drive the short distance to the house. I figure this out when he turns around in the driveway. It doesn’t bother me; hell he’s having to deliver packages LATE into the night. I’m home already, and about to get presents.<\/p>\n
I transfer everything to my office rather than letting it sit in the back of my car while the temperature gets down to freezing again. But the next day I start with fixing the vacuum cleaner. Yes, the almost new one I mentioned only last September. The beater brush won’t come on suddenly. In fact, the light that indicates the status of the floor nozzle *itself* isn’t coming on. Research indicates this means the floor nozzle isn’t receiving power. I first contact Shark, since this is a fairly new vacuum. They almost immediately agree to replace the “power pod,” which doesn’t do me any good because this is a “Shark\u00ae Rotator\u00ae Pet Upright Vacuum with PowerFins\u00ae HairPro\u2122 and Odor Neutralizer Technology.” While the main body of the vacuum is still called the “power pod,” mine doesn’t separate. It’s a pretty standard canister upright vac. It’s been very good, too. I mean, for the 4 1\/2 months we’ve had it. Two more exchanges with Shark\/Ninja’s customer support finally result in a set of instructions that matches my vacuum, but it’s also clear the “person” I’m talking to is only modifying their response based on my response…there’s nothing new being said. Ergo, the support is AI.<\/p>\n
<\/div>Some research indicates the most likely failure point is a micro-switch in the floor nozzle that is supposed to release when the vacuum body tilts back. Just bypass this switch and everything works again. Taking the floor nozzle apart is a minor pain in the neck, only made worse when bypassing the switch *does not* fix the problem. So the issue is the circuit board in the floor nozzle or the motor itself. Which is in the floor nozzle. Considering Shark\/Ninja was pretty adamant at first that they would replace the “power pod” and didn’t consider the floor nozzle to be part of the problem, I’m a bit concerned about what might happen when I disable (cutting the power cord at the vacuum is a necessary part of the repair process) and mail in my vacuum. Further research reveals claims that Shark doesn’t replace “parts,” per se; nor do they make them readily available. If they *do* replace the vacuum cleaner main body and floor nozzle, it will be with a refurbished unit. My vacuum is only a few months old. It will almost certainly be replaced with an older, but working, part.<\/p>\n
This outcome disappoints me. I took a gamble on the Shark vacuum; I knew that at the time. They have great reviews for initial quality, but *if* they break it’s problematic. Sharks seem to have a reputation for anywhere from around 1% or possibly more new units failing in the first year. Not the worst thing ever, but that’s higher than most brands by a large margin. Most units *do not* fail, and seem to work great if kept clean. Ours did, until it didn’t.<\/p>\n
<\/div>So I bought a cheap Hoover. Now, I don’t want to get into the classic “are Hoovers really that good” debate. As I just said, I bought a “cheap” Hoover. That used to be an oxymoron…there were no “cheap” Hoovers. They may have been less expensive than Kirbys…my Aunt had a Kirby when I was still a tot and that thing scared the bejeezus out of me. I was pretty sure that huge, loud, all-metal Kirby could suck ME up if it got too close. My mother’s Hoovers weren’t as expensive, but they weren’t all that inexpensive, either; I remember mom and dad carefully planning for when they needed to buy a new vacuum cleaner. The old one had gone out irreparably. The Hoover they got to replace it was effectively identical, but new. And lasted until well after I graduated high school. Anyway, I know most Hoovers aren’t *that* good anymore; AND that the American Hoover I grew up with isn’t the same as, say, the British Hoover. But I can buy the parts online.<\/p>\n
Just the last day or two I have started the steps to build the new computer, finally. With a new fast drive for apps, that takes care of the biggest choke point left for most situations. I also created a new install USB for the latest version of Manjaro Linux. Although even that messed up in a weird way. OK, last story from this week. I keep all my utility USB sticks in a little fake velour drawstring bag. The exterior of the bag itself tends to collect dust and hair (we live in a very dusty area; we keep pets in the house) so I wash it regularly. Several of the sticks inside have a letter written on them in black Sharpie indicating what Linux distro they have on them. I had burned several new versions a few months ago when one of the kids was experimenting, so I knew there was a fairly new “M” stick. But it wasn’t there. I finally decided I was mistaken and had left the stick somewhere else, chose a different memory stick that had an image for Garuda Linux to use, and took the bag to wash it. Soaked the bag in hot water, then put my hand inside the bag to hold the surface taut while I brushed the hair off. And *that’s* when I found the “M” stick. Now soaking wet, of course.<\/p>\n
Oh, well. I dried it off, blew water out of the USB connection recess, and set it aside to dry out. I’ll try it sometime in the future to see if it still works.<\/p>\n
Hopefully I’ll have pics to share soon. Everybody, be safe and have a good time this week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Somehow I didn’t notice when I created the splash image above I named it “toiletsplash,” which isn’t great. I guess it depends on where your brain is at the moment. Right now, “toiletsplash” is something I *really* don’t want to be thinking about. I have eaten two things in the last 24 hours: leftover Church’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[638],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paige-writes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59935"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59976,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59935\/revisions\/59976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}