"Beneath the cabinets in my kitchen is a row of fluorescent lights that
illuminate the countertops. One of those lights has decided to go all
Baghdad on me. It crackles and pops and blinks for the entire time it is on.
You might be thinking this is no big problem. All I have to do is change the
fluorescent bulb, right?

"My problem is that the light bulb is encased in some sort of impenetrable
container with no indication of how it opens. This is where a "handy" person
would take one look at it, squeeze the end of the container with his pudgy,
oil-stained fingers, slide open the nearest drawer, tap on the side of the
toaster with a wooden spoon, and the casing would fall open. The solution
would be "obvious" to someone with that sort of skill. Sigh.

"I go through life like Helen Keller in a room full of Rubic's Cubes. For
me, changing this light bulb is like figuring out how to sneak the Mona Lisa
out of the Louvre. The light casing has no latches, no buttons, no
instructions, no little holes to stick a screwdriver in, no clues
whatsoever. I have not ruled out the possibility that it came here from the
future."

If you can help Scott (creator of the Dilbert comic strip), visit his blog
at:

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/

You might want to check Dilbert's Ultimate House (DUH).
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/duh/

(I especially like the keep and the subterranean access. Hell of a "safe
room.")

HeyBub wrote:
"Beneath the cabinets in my kitchen is a row of fluorescent lights that
illuminate the countertops. One of those lights has decided to go all
Baghdad on me. It crackles and pops and blinks for the entire time it is on.
You might be thinking this is no big problem. All I have to do is change the
fluorescent bulb, right?

"My problem is that the light bulb is encased in some sort of impenetrable
container with no indication of how it opens. This is where a "handy" person
would take one look at it, squeeze the end of the container with his pudgy,
oil-stained fingers, slide open the nearest drawer, tap on the side of the
toaster with a wooden spoon, and the casing would fall open. The solution
would be "obvious" to someone with that sort of skill. Sigh.

"I go through life like Helen Keller in a room full of Rubic's Cubes. For
me, changing this light bulb is like figuring out how to sneak the Mona Lisa
out of the Louvre. The light casing has no latches, no buttons, no
instructions, no little holes to stick a screwdriver in, no clues
whatsoever. I have not ruled out the possibility that it came here from the
future."

If you can help Scott (creator of the Dilbert comic strip), visit his blog
at:

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/

You might want to check Dilbert's Ultimate House (DUH).
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/duh/

(I especially like the keep and the subterranean access. Hell of a "safe
room.")

this is where ya start being adventerous by turning off power to the
light and unscrewing anything visible , checking that the cover is in
fact coming loose BEFORE some part falls off inside the light.


Posting the make and moel if known would help. Or you could find the
original installation instructions and see what they say .

The few I have its a matter of squeezing the cover and sliding it
toward one end , then pulling it out and towards the other end to
remove it .

HeyBub wrote:
"Beneath the cabinets in my kitchen is a row of fluorescent lights that
illuminate the countertops. One of those lights has decided to go all
Baghdad on me. It crackles and pops and blinks for the entire time it is on.
You might be thinking this is no big problem. All I have to do is change the
fluorescent bulb, right?

That ain't necessarily so, it might also be caused by a defective ballast.

Since the word luck in my household is spelled with three letters,
B-A-D, I'd likely find myself changing a ballast.

"My problem is that the light bulb is encased in some sort of impenetrable
container with no indication of how it opens. This is where a "handy" person
would take one look at it, squeeze the end of the container with his pudgy,
oil-stained fingers, slide open the nearest drawer, tap on the side of the
toaster with a wooden spoon, and the casing would fall open. The solution
would be "obvious" to someone with that sort of skill. Sigh.

"I go through life like Helen Keller in a room full of Rubic's Cubes. For
me, changing this light bulb is like figuring out how to sneak the Mona Lisa
out of the Louvre. The light casing has no latches, no buttons, no
instructions, no little holes to stick a screwdriver in, no clues
whatsoever. I have not ruled out the possibility that it came here from the
future."

If there is a translucent white cover running horizontally under the
lamp and curving upward at the front, try pushing backwards on the top
part of the vertical portion to see if it springs inward a little. If it
does, try pulling down while keeping it sprung in and it may just "hinge
down" and come off.

That's the way mine are, anyway.

Or, you can just turn your excellent writing skills into money and hire
a handyperson to show you how to get at the flourescent bulbs.

If you can help Scott (creator of the Dilbert comic strip), visit his blog
at:

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/

You might want to check Dilbert's Ultimate House (DUH).
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/duh/

(I especially like the keep and the subterranean access. Hell of a "safe
room.")



Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:37:16 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

"Beneath the cabinets in my kitchen is a row of fluorescent lights that
illuminate the countertops. One of those lights has decided to go all
Baghdad on me. It crackles and pops and blinks for the entire time it is on.
You might be thinking this is no big problem. All I have to do is change the
fluorescent bulb, right?

"My problem is that the light bulb is encased in some sort of impenetrable
container with no indication of how it opens. This is where a "handy" person
would take one look at it, squeeze the end of the container with his pudgy,

There is no light, and no electrical problem.

There's just this spammer trying to lure you to his website, or his
filthy blog.

*** PLEASE DONT FEED SPAMMERS ***

"HeyBub" gets the official *PLONK*

wrote:
On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:37:16 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

"Beneath the cabinets in my kitchen is a row of fluorescent lights
that illuminate the countertops. One of those lights has decided to
go all Baghdad on me. It crackles and pops and blinks for the entire
time it is on. You might be thinking this is no big problem. All I
have to do is change the fluorescent bulb, right?

"My problem is that the light bulb is encased in some sort of
impenetrable container with no indication of how it opens. This is
where a "handy" person would take one look at it, squeeze the end of
the container with his pudgy,

There is no light, and no electrical problem.

There's just this spammer trying to lure you to his website, or his
filthy blog.

*** PLEASE DONT FEED SPAMMERS ***

"HeyBub" gets the official *PLONK*

Do I get to pick the color?

Uh, not my website or blog.

Evidently you have no sense of humor - assuming evil on the part of Dilbert
or his creator, Scott Adams. Dilbert is a comic strip. It appears in over
2,500 newspapers in 65 countries and has over 150 million readers (according
to Wikipedia).

He's even in California like you.

If you go to Dilbert's blog, you'll see that the above quote was a sincere,
albeit humerous, request for information (evidently Adams doesn't know about
this newsgroup). When I last checked, there were 227 responses to Scott's
problem.

I have no idea how many responses to your problem you've racked up over the
years.