Let there be light

This is likely my last post until I get back. I'm struggling to come up with a topic other than Mexico. It's really difficult. How about a ramdon post about things that have happened lately? You love those, right? This one shall be about light bulbs. Yep, light bulbs. You're welcome.

I had a friend over at my place the other day to fix all the things I've broken as of late (Thanks Dave!). As we were nearing the end of the long list, I started adding little extras. He was thrilled. One of the extras being the light in my living room.

This fixture has three sconces; one of the sconces was broken - I could not for the life of me take out the light bulb. And it was burnt out. Turn and turn as you might, the thing just rotated. When I first discovered it, I decided that two out of three aint bad and I didn't need to fix it. But when one of the remaining two light bulbs burnt out (again) I decided it might be a good idea to have someone look at it.

And by someone. I mean Dave.

Dave climbed up on my coffee table and started turning. He said "Uh, oh... that's not good..." He suspected the socket was turning freely, possibly twisting the wires inside. He thought they could break at any time and then be a serious fire hazard. I quickly realized I'm not equipped to deal with fire. I have no fire extinguisher, my fire alarm has been removed and put... somewhere... and I have no insurance. I decided it might be a good time to talk to my landlord.

The very next day, I saw him outside and told him of my plight with the light bulb. He came in, took a look, dissected the fixture and removed the shotty light bulb. He asked for another bulb. I did not have one.

Side story:

I find light bulbs to be very expensive and not even the fancy, long-lasting, eco-friendly, power-smart variety. Just plain old light bulbs are expensive. So, when I go to buy them and realize just how expensive they are, I leave that store, go to WalMart and pick up the cheapest light bulbs I can find. Without fail, they last about a month and crap out on me. I buy tonnes of light bulbs and go through them like they're going out of style. Thus, I had no light bulbs in the house even though I had bought at least a dozen in the past year. I don't even own that many lights.

The next day, I went out and bought light bulbs and again, was astounded at how expensive they were. I decided that I wasn't going to cheap out, I was going to pay the going rate for light bulbs and deal with it. I was none too happy about spending $10 on a 4-pack. So I bought some pudding to go along with it. It was butterscotch and it was delicious. And only $1.29 for four.

Anyway, I brought home the light bulbs and put two new bulbs in my living room light. I also remembered that my kitchen light (same fixture as living room) also had two out of three bulbs burnt out. I replaced those as well.

I tested out the kitchen light and was practically blinded by the brightness. I'm not sure if it's the type of bulb I purchased, or the fact that I paid going rate for light bulbs and they actually work or the fact that there's three times the amount of light in the kitchen now. Regardless, at that very moment I realized: I have not been cleaning my kitchen properly at all. Parts of the kitchen looked absolutely filthy. Parts where one week ago, I thought were just slightly dirty. I was shocked.

I should really get on that.