After working nearly a full (stressful) day I picked up my parents at the Burbank airport.  We took Vanowen to Sepulveda and went to the 99 Ranch Market for some live crabs. 

Afterwards I replaced the vacuum band and discovered it still wasn’t working.  After much consternation from all three of us, my dad took off the attachment hose and asked me if I had a broom handle.  Sure enough we discovered a blockage in the artery like a cheeseburger in Dom Deluise.

This of course used only a portion of my dad’s brain; another part was examining my entranceway light, which has worked poorly for a while.  I wanted to make sure it was really truly burnt out before I took the next step. My father’s electrical know-how, being an engineer, is far beyond mine, and live electricity is something I don’t mess with – plumbing, sure, but anything measured in volts, I don’t think so.  Best to leave that to the retired expert.

 Sure thing, dad confirmed that two of the light sockets were completely burnt out (and one of the wires too).  So, we capped the night off with a trip to Home Depot for a new light fixture (because they didn’t have replacement sockets).

My mom actually swept my condo while we were at Home Depot, so unfortunately today ended up being more work than fun for them – hopefully it’ll be all fun tomorrow.