header-photo

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Pet Peeve #48

When we moved to Turkey we were surprised to learn that we had to purchase light fixtures for our apartment. They aren't standard issue here. When people move they take their light fixtures with them. The people who rented our apartment for us before we arrived in Turkey had been kind enough to install these lovely fixtures in all of the main rooms of the house so that we could at least have some light.


Our lovely lights on a string were wired into the wall so we could flip a switch to turn them on instead of stumbling around in the dark trying to find that little chain.

After purchasing the more important things we needed to live...like beds...we ventured out to find new light fixtures. Ceiling fans were a relatively new thing and seeing that our house didn't have a/c we decided that they were also a necessary thing. We purchased fans for every room except the bathrooms and hallway. Good move on our part I think.

Now for the pet peeve thing. It drives me crazy when a fan light bulb goes out. It doesn't just flicker and then die. No. It explodes. Literally. The light bulb pops and sends glass flying all over the room. This seems to happen at the most inopportune times as well. Like last night. It was the middle of the night. I got up to go to the bathroom and get a drink. I also decided to grab something from the living room. I turned on the light...pop...crash...glass all over the floor, the computer, the chair...everywhere. Man. I didn't want to clean up glass in the middle of the night. Since it wasn't in the kitchen which would be the first room anyone visited when they woke up (well, after the bathroom, that is) I decided to just go back to bed and deal with it this morning. Fast forward to this morning. Brian walks into the living room. Now normally he would have been barefoot...or at least in socks, but he was about to take the kids to school when he realized he needed something from the file box in the living room. Thankfully he had already put his shoes on. He walked over the crunchy floor and wonder aloud what he was walking on. I had forgotten about the exploding light bulb (mainly because I had taken Nyquil when I went to bed, but that is another post for another time,) and was glad he wasn't barefoot. (Brian cleaned up the mess after he took the kids to school...I know...what a guy!)


Where the light bulb was. Now we have to turn off the power and use needle nose pliers to change this bulb. Because there are two more light bulbs on this fan I don't see that happening anytime soon. Yeah...we're lazy.


The exploding light bulbs. Maybe it has everything to do with the wattage of the light bulbs used. We use 40 watt bulbs because anything less really isn't bright enough. Maybe the fan wiring isn't that great. I have no idea. What I do know is this...the hallway and bathroom light fixtures use regular light bulbs. The lamps use regular light bulbs. And they never explode. Never.

(I know I haven't posted 47 pet peeves before this one. I think I have only posted one, but since I called that post Pet Peeve #47 I decided to use #48 for this one. If it bothers anyone I can try to come up with 46 additional pet peeves, but that will be hard. I am usually easy to please and fairly content. I'm just saying.)

6 comments:

Will said...

They take the light fixtures? That's crazy.

Anonymous said...

Natalie, I just wanted to let you know that I emailed you just in case my message might have gone to your spam folder. No rush on replying. I just thought maybe since I am not in your address book, it might have gone to spam.

Thanks!

HeyJoe said...

I think Pet Peeve #47 is when I joined this little party.

Yea, supplying your own light fixtures is all kinds of nutty.

Natalie said...

will - i know. it is crazy. but they usually buy fancy light fixtures as well. everyone is quite shocked at our ceiling fans, because they aren't exactly showy.

kristy - got it!

heyjoe - yep...that is when you joined this party. and what a party it's been!

i know...when we move out of our house we may just leave our light fixtures. i wonder how confused the people moving in would be by that.

Anonymous said...

Hey Natalie, we were surprised to see here in the US that there were no light at all in the rooms, there were lights only in the kitchen and bathrooms. Maybe it' s same here for the rentals. Actually that was the case in Florida, both in Miami and Fort Myers. In Houston we have light fixtures in every room! Yay!

I have lived in Turkiye for 35 years:) and never had an exploded bulb! Serious! Maybe you have to replace those with higher voltage light bulbs! Ask your neighbors, those light bulbs' voltage is low, change them immediately.
Nese

Natalie said...

nese - some apartment complexes just have outlets for you to plug lamps in. i didn't think about that! i knew those exploding bulbs had to be my fault! i'll ask someone what i am doing wrong as soon as i get back!