Hey there, dudes and dudettes! I’m back. Finally. And I’m really sorry if you have been visiting this blog from time to time just to realize that there were no new posts. You see, I was unable to upload new posts due to… to… ahm… TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Yep. Technical difficulties! (Note to self: wow, this is such a great excuse. Works every time and it sounds so real, people don’t even doubt it. I’ll have to use it more often!)
Ok, ok but what’s with the sh*t happens story, you’re asking? Well, recently I embarked on a path of becoming a frugalist. Fruga…what? Frugalist. Check it out here. Really cool lifestyle concept. And so, on my way from pure consumerism towards radical frugality, I decided to throw away, give away and sell my belongings. Literally everything. Ok, almost everything. But I guess you know this already. I believe I’ve mentioned this idea in one of the previous posts some time ago. And guess what – I already sold a few things on eBay and got rid of some old stuff. Yay! But there’s so much more to be listed and sold…
Anyways, to cut the long story short: I decided it was time for my Maurice Lacroix chronograph to go. For those of you who don’t know what a chronograph is – it’s just a flashy name for a wrist watch with a few additional “complications” (that’s what they call wrist watch functions beyond simply indicating time. I’m serious. Marketing never sleeps). Being a chronograph and not a plain wrist watch with a stopwatch makes it more expensive, too 🙂 My particular chronograph is a beautiful, stylish but also somewhat older quarz model. Nothing too fancy. Since the battery was already with one foot in the happy hunting grounds, I decided to change it DIY style. C’mon, how hard can that be? And I’d save 15 euros, too.
Oh, man. Big mistake. A perfect example of “make or buy” decision gone wrong. It’s not that I didn’t have the tools, skills, time or patience. Not at all. On the contrary. I did a wonderful job opening the case without a scratch. And then I went for the battery clamp screw. Did that, too. Unscrewed the screw and…
Then I got the stupidest idea ever: to make a photo of the battery clamp while that tiny screw was hanging in it’s tiny screw hole. I reached for my iPhone which was lying on the shelf just behind my back, and made a few photos. And when I checked the last photo I took, the f@”&$*%* tiny screw was *not* on that photo. What?! It was there just a second ago. As you can imagine, I was about to explode. Oh, boy was I angry with myself. DIY? Seriously? Save 15 eur? WTF?! Idiot. But then I decided not to get upset at all and said to myself “you’ll find it, man. Don’t worry. Calm down. Breathe in, breathe out and start searching”.
And then I launched the rescue mission: first I checked around the desk. Under the monitor stand, perhaps? Hm… No. Under the printer? Nope. Keyboard? No. Hey, maybe the bloody thing is still in the watch somewhere? So I shook that watch inside out, hoping that the darn lil’ thing will fall out from the housing. Nah. No dice. So I went down on the floor. There was still hope that I’ll find the tiny screw on the floor somewhere. BTW, I’m calling that little thing a “tiny screw”. If you’ve ever opened an iPhone or any other cell phone, then you’ve seen small screws. Now, this thing is 10 times smaller! It’s literally just a bit bigger than a grain of sand. Crazy! How do they make them so small? Ok, so I searched high and low, square inch by square inch… and nothing. Ever heard of “needle in a haystack“? Well, this is the point where that figure of speech comes to life.
But, not all was lost! I could swipe across the floor with a strong magnet! Ha! A trully marvelous idea! Said. Done. But – nope. Fail. “Error” (as my colleague Deniz used to say). And then I went for the last resort: install a fresh vacuum cleaner bag and vacuum the whole damn floor. Afterwards simply use a utility knife and carefully cut the bag open. The screw must be somewhere inside… Now, this last step I haven’t done yet. Because… what if I don’t find the screw inside the vacuum cleaner bag?!