household crisis averted

Our kitchen light went out, fortunately during the daytime when it was possible to see to replace it. It's a halogen lamp, which is what makes this more than a "screw the light bulb in, end of story" problem.

The news struck dread, for though it's been some nine years since the last time it needed replacing, that event is seared into memory. Fortunately, again, that means I remember how we solved it.

Past experiences included 1) learning the hard way never ever to touch the contacts at the end of the bulb, because skin oil will kill the contacts; 2) trying unsuccessfully to squeeze the bulb into the brackets while standing on the top of a stepstool; 3) in the process, dropping more than one bulb on the floor, resulting in its breaking, and having to go out and buy another, and since they cost at least $5, that's a serious dent; 4) eventually determining that if you push this bracket (this one, not the other one) out just so, you can barely squeeze the bulb into place.

All that went through my mind, and having found that we actually had an extra bulb in our supplies closet, so I didn't even have to go out into virus-world and buy one, and lo, the replacement was done in a jiffy. Bright light revealed by contrast just how worn down the old bulb already was, and indeed its glass tube was coated inside with soot, which is not conducive to illumination.