Why oh Why...

...does this stuff happen while husbands are in the middle of the ocean? Monday morning Sydney turned on the TV only to find the image jumping, freezing and white, green and purple lines stretching horizontally and diagonally across the screen. I tried a different mode with the DVD player and then the Wii and the lines remained, so much to my dismay I realized it was the TV and not the cable having the problem.

Thankfully Bob's on a surface ship right now and not in a big metal tube under the water. On surface ships emails are usually sent and received within five minutes and attachments like pictures can be included. Not the case with submarines! Depending on what they're doing and where they are, emails can take weeks to be received, then once replied to it takes another week, or even a month, to get the response back. So basically having a one-way conversation with yourself. And no attachments can be sent with submarine email, no no! Bob would have to rely on my description of the problem, and wouldn't even find out about it until weeks after!

I tried turning it off and turning it back on, letting it sit untouched for 24 hours, checking all the connections, etc. You name it, I tried it. Then this morning I unplugged it for a couple of hours and when I plugged it back in and turned it on this is what I saw. Gee, swell. So no more diagonal or horizontal stripes, now just green vertical ones with some white in there.

After sending another email to Bob with this picture, I loaded the dishwasher and when I came back into the living room the stripes were gone. Keanna and Sydney were jumping and screaming saying "It's fixed, mom you fixed it." Yup, sure, sure I fixed it, whatever you say! Okay, I'll take the credit for it...after all, my husband has been home three weeks since we arrived here and I've dealt with a bunch of crap without his assistance...in a foreign country that doesn't speak English and drives on the other side of the road, so yup, I'm going to take credit for fixing the TV.

I emailed Bob and told him I fixed it by (and I quote): I read a lot last night and suspected failure of the 13v zener D812, this reduces pin 5 of IC801 below threshold voltage. And then this morning when I turned on the tv before stroller workout class and got the vertical lines that confirmed it. So I adjusted the R339 (1.2ohms 1w), C331, C336 (1uF, 50v) and C333 (100uF, 35v). That in turn led me to the 5v supply to the text panel. Gave that a quick turn to the right -remember, righty tighty, lefty loosy- put it back to together and it worked.

I copy and pasted jargon off of some help line website. I knew he wouldn't go for it, but it was good for a laugh...at least on my end. But it's fixed, at least for now, and that's what counts. Julie suggested I tell him I fixed it by creating a splitter with a bubble gum wrapper and hair elastic, you know, MacGyver style. I thought a nice touch would be to add a bobby-pin.

I have no idea what's wrong with it, what was wrong with it or why it did what it was doing. But I don't care and am happy to hear the kids say, "Yeah mom it's all better, go mom, mom you fixed it!" Aaaaah, music to my ears!