Spare parts

People make fun of me for having a lot of odd bits and bobs lying about...

...and then moving with them.

But sometimes things work out nicely.

When I hooked up the TiVo I used one of the HDMI cables that I had used in the past. I've always thought of HDMI cables in a very digital way: they either work or they don't.

I finally found an exception.

The cable I picked up worked some of the time. It sometimes worked. Sometimes not. Sometimes it worked for a few minutes or perhaps an hour.

...and this gets us back to spare parts.

When I order something I have a habit of over ordering. For instance when I ordered from MonoPrice (awesome store!) I don't order one HDMI cable... I order three or four. Either I'll need one or a friend might need one. And it spreads out the shipping too.

We unpacked the box of cables and I pulled out a new HDMI cable. I swapped out the cheap HDMI cable and replaced it with the cheap (price, not quality) cable from MonoPrice and all the problems went away.

Spare parts to the rescue!

Then there's the extra router I have lying about that hooks up all my gear.

Or the spare speakers and monitor that was our TV before the real one was unpacked.

Maybe the spare motorcycle parts to get things running in short order (well, if I can find the charger somewhere).