Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The path to getting well hung


This is an addendum to yesterday's quick post. And, before I get too far into this, having used the word hung, it makes me wonder, what happened to using hung or pled? It seems that on the news I'm always hearing hanged or pleaded. I understand that both are correct, but you never hear that someone pled a certain way or that someone was hung. Interesting.

Anyway ...

I mounted our new TV to the wall the day we received it. It wasn't as difficult as some have made it out to be, but I had problems with aspects of the process I didn't think I would.

My first mistake was mounting the bracket to the wall before the TV was delivered. I just kind of eyeballed the distance vertically and went with it. Turns out, I really should have waited and measured because I mounted the bracket about four inches too high. Of course, you don't figure this out until after you've put the 75-pound TV on the wall, which, at the same time, you realize is also hanging crooked.

Then came the fun of trying to get the TV off of the wall bracket. You see, the bracket mounts to the wall and there are brackets you mount to the back of the TV that hook onto the wall bracket. It's not terribly difficult, unless you're me. J-mom and I tried several times to get the TV back down. I strained to lift the TV straight up. I strained and strained. It just wasn't coming. I sure didn't remember the TV being this heavy when we were lifting it up in the first place. J-mom says to me, "Are you pulling it out and then lifting up?" I was like, "Yeah, whatever."

We tried lifting a few more times and then I just gave up. I was like, "There's no way. I need some more help." But, s-l-o-w-l-y, realization sank in and I understood what J-mom was trying to say. "Ooooh. Pull the TV bottom out and then lift up." So we tried again and pulled the TV bottom out slightly and lifted the TV right off the wall bracket. Sure seemed a lot lighter that time after trying to pick up the wall. See, those brackets on the back of the TV have hooks at the top to keep the TV on the wall bracket and have an area at the bottom that keep the TV from being bumped out of the bracket. Duh.

After getting the TV off the wall, I moved the bracket four inches down (thankfully the TV covers the old holes) and verified that the bracket was plumb. It is, it was, it is. We lifted the TV back up. It was crooked. We took it back down. I adjusted the brackets on the TV. We lifted it back up. It was still crooked. We repeated this process about five or six times before I realized the mistake I was making in adjusting the brackets on the TV. I finally got it right and we finally got it on the wall. Ugh.

The moral of the story ... maybe it's worth it to pay for the home set-up charge.

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