A morning run to Teddy Stadium, Fantastik vs. Ugly Black Mark, and Powerbook maintenance.
I ran during the early morning in order to avoid the wilting heat of the sun. This time I took a different route, heading in the general direction of Teddy Stadium, which I had never seen before except for its symbol on my tourist map. I intended to enter the stadium and run the stairways that separate the rows of seats.
This is a ritual that began for me during college days in Boston, when a fraternity buddy named "Zonker" would rouse a small group of us in the early morning to bike down to the Harvard Stadium and run the bleachers. Zonker called it the "He-man Club", and we were very systematic about it -- starting at Row 1 Seat A and proceeding up each set of bleachers and down the stairs that separated the rows, following the "U" shape of the stadium until the top seat of Row 37. The first time I tried it, I was dry heaving by Row 25, but Zonker and the rest were very supportive, and eventually I was able to "do the stadium" on a regular basis.
I was very disappointed when I arrived at Teddy Stadium to find all the entryways locked. The Harvard Stadium was often locked, too, but usually there was always one door open if you tried them all. No such luck at Teddy Stadium.
Along the return run to the apartment, I found a children's playground that was unoccupied, and did some pull-ups on the monkey bars. I also found that the edge of the plastic kiddy slide is good for doing pushups.
Upon arriving at the apartment, I fished around under the bathroom sink for some cleaning agent to remove the ugly black mark that was inflicted on the rental car by hoodlums on the road to Maale Adumim. I found a yellow bottle of something called "Fantastik" and an old t-shirt, and took them outside to the rental car. Even though I couldn't scratch the black stuff off with my fingernail, the Fantastik and t-shirt stripped the stuff right off. I was quite happy.
With that task easily out of the way, I felt bold enough to attempt something a little more difficult. Lately the bottom half of the LCD display on my powerbook has been missing every third pixel or so. While I can still see the shapes of icons and windows on the bottom half of the screen, it is almost impossible to read text in the disfunctional area. Before finally deciding to die, the pixels on the lower half of the screen were very jittery -- leading me to think that there could be a loose connection. I decided to disassemble the powerbook. Here are the components:
Laptops in general are hard to repair because of the small size of the parts. It is extremely easy to damage or lose tiny things, and it is important to keep related parts together as you remove them. I like the design of the Powerbook Duo because it requires very few tools to disassemble. Here are the tools I used:
After disassembling the LCD panel, I found nothing obviously wrong, so I partially reassembled the screen and started the computer. The screen was still half functional. I began to wiggle wires and connecting cables. At this point I learned that, although a Powerbook battery contains only 12 Volts of electricity, there is a small voltage transformer in the LCD display circuitry that generates 135 Volts. A tiny bolt of electricity simultaneously cut a tiny, but deep hole in my index finger and cauterized it. Since the wound needed no further first aid, I just stared at my finger for a minute.
The lesson is:
Afterwards, I cleaned a grounding points on the foil backing with the sandpaper and reassembled the LCD display. It worked fine and I could see all the pixels.
That night, after I had gone to bed, there was a rattle of keys at the door, and then someone came in and turned on the light in the hallway. It was Dov, the owner of the apartment, returning from his vacation. He had planned to go on vacation for a week, and then to serve two weeks duty in the army. However, the army had canceled on him, so he didn't have to go after all.
This created an awkward situation because I had already rented the apartment for three weeks, and he was back after only one week. Even though I've already paid him rent, I feel bad about staying in his house if he needs it. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he could stay at a friend's house for a while. I hope he's not too inconvenienced. I had hoped to have a place that my sister Angie and I could stay by this Friday, when she arrives.
Dov got out some sheets and slept on the couch in the TV room.