Thoughts on life, leadership and the movement called the church by Brian C. Hughes, Senior Pastor

by Brian C. Hughes, Senior Pastor

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Learning, Fixing Stuff and Being a Dad


My TV broke. It was an off-brand, 44" LCD that I bought about 5 years ago. But a few months ago, it started having some problems. The colors would get distorted in all four corners of the screen. Then it would take some time to 'warm up' before the picture would come on. Then it would take longer until it took like 45 minutes.

And it turned off in the final minutes of this year's Superbowl!

So, I Googled my make and model and learned that others were having similar trouble with the same TV. There was a fix - replace 4 capacitors (C28, C32, etc.) I was lost. I wouldn't know a capacitor if it hit me in the face.

So, I did...nothing. The thing just sat, unused, in our living room, which we never used anymore because there was no TV.

But the other day, I decided the threshold of pain was high enough. I went to YouTube and 'went to school' on capacitors. I asked Chauncey Starkey, a colleague on our staff who used to work on these dumb things. I went to Radio Shack and bought a solder gun, solder, capacitors and a solder wick. Joshua and I took the thing apart, took the board out, created a make-shift work table out of cardboard...and fixed it. I've never soldered anything in my life.

And it worked.

And now, I'm a TV repair guy. Yes!

Joshua, my 9 year old, was my big helper. I got to be a good Dad and I got my bigscreen TV back AND I saved the replacement cost of hundreds of dollars.

And it feels pretty good.

2 comments:

Beth said...

I am so proud of you. i'm gonna cry.

jf said...

Wow!!! This is huge!! Congratulations Brian. It doesn't even look like you got hurt. I paid $350 for someone to come out and do that to my TV. You and Josh are a great team!