Been Busy

Lori, the new kitten (not everyone who reads THIS blog is cat-addicted) has taken up a lot of my time pre and post arrival.  But there have been other things going on.  

A minor but important event was returning a package of truly horrible frozen meatballs to Safeway (they tasted like ground up hot dogs mushed with Wonder Bread).  Because last year I went from the cashier straight to the Customer Service desk about a mispriced item and the lady there said they didn't accept "returns".  I pointed out I had only travelled 10" to the desk.  She GRUDGINGLY gave me a refund.  It was like I was pulling fish-hooks out of her butt.

So I went online to see Safeway's return policy.  It said they happily refunded any perishable or non-perishable item within the expiration dates.  So with that in hand (literally, I printed it out), I brought the meatballs back, prepared for an argument.

To my surprise, the Customer Service desk person didn't hesitate to give me cash back.  YAY!

Another surprise was to see that one of my upper kitchen cabinets was falling away from the wall.  Well, they are 35 years old...  But it wasn't that the whole cabinet was coming off.  The back for still firmly afixxed.  The cabinet SIDE was loose.

So, get out the glue...  But I couldn't force the side onto the back.  The darn thing was held together with staples!  I probably could have pulled all the staples out (because they wouldn't fit back into the holes and useless if they did.  Brute force seemed the best option.

Start 2 hours of work...  The staples made it hard to force the cabinet side onto the back.  But I'm nothing if not persistent, and persistence overcomes a lot of problems.

I failed in several ways, at first.  Wood glue and pushing had little effect.  But I had a ratcheting cargo bar and tried that.  It wasn't equal to the pressure of the loose staples.  I expressed a LOT of BAD WORDS... 

But I looked at it all again and reconsidered the problem.  That's what persistance is.  I realized the first thing to do was get the side in contact with the back.  So I measured the height to countertop and found things that fit under it.  

You'll love this"  My wood cutting board on end, a can of cat food, and 2 shims levered it up perfectly!  And I found that the cargo bar could be wedged in the open cabinet door at one end and the wall and another cabinet door.

That failed.

OK, the cargo bar had to be secured at both ends so I could actually rachet it without having to hold both ends in place.  

Having figured THAT out, I had to undo everything to squirt wood glue in the loose side and back.  Of COURSE the wood glue was old and the opening was dried.  So I soaked the tip in hot water and cleaned it.

THEN I squirted glue between the loose parts and clamped both ends of the ratchet bar in place.  And set the cutting board, catfood can and shims up tight.  MacGyver's got nothing on me, LOL!  Well, OK, I didn't use a paperclip...

Pushing and shoving, I ratcheted the cargo bar tight as possible.  So far as I could tell, it was a successfully re-joining.  But I also like to be sure.  Extremism in repairs is not a vice and it is not wrong to overdo one.  

So I cut wood strips 1/2" x 1/2" to fit between the shelfs.  That eliminates adjusting the shelves, but since I haven't changed them in 35 years, I probably wont ever need to.  I spread glue on those and wedged then into place with bricks.

I have weird odd tools for reasons.  You never know WHAT you will need sometimes...  

Cabinet, I'll be watching you...