A Time to Call "The Guy"

Generally I am pretty good at fixing things on my own. Every once and a while, it is good to call "my guy" to fix something. There are certain things you don't want to fix yourself as it can be dangerous. When my garage door spring broke, I didn't fix it. Instead I called my garage door guy. Garage door springs store a lot of potential energy that can be fatal if you are not careful. My guy did a great job, charged a reasonable price, and nobody got hurt.

This past week I got a call from my wife and she told me that our very expensive oven wasn't working. I thought about fixing it myself but quickly remembered that it runs on 220 volts. That is twice the amount found in your normal wall electrical sockets. "Danger" was the main thought running through my mind and so I had my wife call her home appliance repair guy. He came out to the house today and discovered the problem in about 2 minutes. That included sliding the oven out from the wall so he could see the back. It turns out a $35 part failed and needs replaced. He ordered a new one and will install it early next week.

It was very educational for me to watch my wife's "guy" work. Should something similar happen in the future, I now know what to do. First, turn off the circuit breaker to the oven. Then carefully slide the oven away from the wall so I can inspect the electrical cord. If something doesn't look right, replace the part with a new one. Before watching the repairman, I might have tried to jury rig it. That would have been bad as my fix might have caused a fire and burned my house down.

When it comes to fixing computers, you don't have to worry about them running at 220 volts or having large mechanical springs that can kill you. About the worst you can do is shock yourself. As long as you avoid opening a power supply or stick to software, I encourage you to use your favorite Internet search engine and see if you can't fix any problems on your own. If you are uncomfortable with that, think about all of the technical people you know and see if you can't figure out who is "your guy."