That week in Phoenix where everything I touched broke

Last July I had a stretch where I couldn't catch a break. Started with a 65 inch LG that had a bad backlight and I accidentally cracked the panel pulling it apart. Then a customer brought in a vintage Pioneer receiver that I spent 3 days on only to find the transformer was shot and unobtainable. On Thursday my soldering station died mid-reflow on a laptop board. I ended up using a butane torch to finish the job and it actually worked but barely. By Friday I had three returns sitting on my bench from jobs I swore were solid. What made it stand out was how every single fix I attempted just made things worse. Has anyone else had a week where you should have just closed up shop and walked away?

3 comments

3 Comments

hollyc922mo ago

Oh man, I had a week EXACTLY like that last fall. Dropped a perfectly working tablet and shattered the screen because I was so frustrated from three straight days of nothing going right. Sometimes you just gotta walk away and come back the next week before you make everything WORSE.

allen.ivan2mo ago

Yo I bet that Pioneer receiver was a beast in its day but yeah those unobtainable parts are the worst. Honestly makes you wonder if the universe was sending you a sign to take a break or if it was just bad juju from something else you did earlier that week.

chen.casey1mo ago

Nah, I don't buy the bad juju thing. Sometimes you just get dealt a bad hand with old electronics. That Pioneer probably had a good 20 year run already. The universe isn't sending you signs, it's just entropy doing its thing.