The One with What A Night!

Tonight started off great! Dinner at Wendy's and then I finally got to pick up my wedding ring in Salt Lake which has been in the shop for almost a month. I've missed it so.

But then we got home.

Last Friday my chinchilla chewed through the power cord to our wireless router so we went out and bought another router and sent the broken one to my dad to fix. Guess who chewed right through the brand new wireless router power cord tonight, not even 72 hours later?!? My bird! Ahhh! Instead of freaking out (okay, maybe a little freaking out was involved), I decided to see if I could fix it myself. After cutting the wires back slightly to reveal the copper inside, I taped it together and plugged it back in. No power.

Time to bust out the big guns.

I got out my soldering kit and called my lifeline: my dad. He was able to talk me through, step by step, no soldering required.

First I cut back each of the four strands of wire to reveal about 1" of the copper. I named them A, B, C and D.
I twisted A and C together and B and D together.
Then I plugged the power cord into the wall and got out my handy dandy voltage reader. Why do I have one of these? Because I have Tom Taylor for my dad. For example, this is his bike: He says, "I wanted to use an Android-powered phone to make a GPS track of the trip, for its maps, and to keep in touch with Carolyn. I knew once we turned up the Entiat River we'd lose cell coverage. The way a cell phone works, or at least the way this one works, it tries to keep in constant communication with a cell tower. Once the phone loses communication, it dials up the transmitting power and "check-in" frequency as it tries to re-establish communication. This puts the phone in a high-drain mode and quickly uses up the battery. I planned to combat that drain with a small solar panel zip-tied to my top tube."

English please, Dald :)

Anyways, I touched the black end of the voltage reader to the outside of the metal part that plugs into the router and put the red end inside the metal part that plugs into the router. This was a tricky maneuver with my sweaty hands. The reading said -14.73. I had a 50/50 chance of twisting the wires together and I got it wrong. Phooey.

I untwisted the wires, connected A and D together and connected B and C together, did the voltage thingy again and got a positive reading. Booyah! I wrapped electrical tape around the twisted wires and plugged the router back in. We have power!

Moral of the story: whenever we leave the house, we're going to take the wireless router out of the destructive pet room so no chinchillas or birds or rabbits or cats or fish can chew through it!

But oh wait, the troubles don't end there.

I was changing into my pajamas and hanging my clothes back on the rod and it busted!!
Luckily it was just a matter of slipping it back into place, but still. I coulda done without that cherry on top.

BUT. Everything is A-OK now. Ring is back on my finger. Wireless router is working. Closet is in order.

May we all rest in peace tonight.