Thursday, June 23, 2022

"Specialization is for insects."

This whole thing started a couple of nights ago, when I sat down on my rocker-recliner and found that the first half of that description no longer applied.  

I turned over the chair and saw only powdered padding and copious amounts of cat hair.  Remembering that I'd found a chair repairman a few years ago, I dug out the man's business card and prepared for another unexpected hundred-dollar expense.

But last night, I looked again with a brighter light and saw a bar crossing the front of the chair.  At one end, a bolt and nut held some mechanism in place.  At the other end was a hole where a similar bolt and nut belonged.  The two pieces of the broken bolt lay under the half-connected mechanism.

So I decided to go to the nearby hardware store and pick up a replacement bolt, and use the nut from the broken old one.  It looked doable, in other words.

This morning, I worked until 11:45 and came downstairs to find this half-grown rabbit outside our front door, enjoying the clover.


Driving to the hardware store, I looked across the road at an intersection and saw more suburban wildlife.


These wildflowers were growing along the gravel road across the intersection.


I'll have to use Google Images or some app to identify this likely common wildflower.

Edit:  Google Lens produces a number of results, and after looking at them my guess is that it's Scentless Chamomile.  


At the hardware store, there was a staff member in the small hardware section, and he quickly identified the type and size of bolt I was looking for.  I bought two, because if one of them had broken, the other was liable to as well.


Back home, there was a bit of work getting the carriage bolt to stay in place while I ratcheted the nut tightly.  But in a couple of minutes, I flipped the chair back upright, sat down on it, and rocked once more.  

So, it's fixed and it cost 27 cents.  An unexpected 27-cent expense is OK; I can handle that.  Besides, I got to see some wildlife and I'm going to learn more about wildflowers.  See why I'm filing this under "accomplishments"?  

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