Potential Capacitance

A strange thing happened recently as we woke up and started our morning routine. Typically my alarm goes off at 6:30am, we roll out of bed and one of us starts the coffee. The other turns on the TV and gets something somewhat calm but upbeat going so that everyone wakes up and gets started on their day.

My wife had already started the coffee, so I hit the power button and thought about playing some music to get the troops at attention, but something looked... odd.

My stupid-because-I-just-woke-up-brain couldn't tell exactly what I was seeing, but the image was all wrong. After a few sips of joe and a smoke, I realized that the TV display was in negative colors. Everything was there, all the buttons responded correctly, but the colors were a weird metallic purple and green rather than normal.

Over the next few days I did some research, tried some reset options, but it sounded more and more like it was an issue I'd either need to repair, or just pitch the whole thing and buy a new one. This TV is five years old, and at the time I bought it, the price was $1k. (I had just gotten a bonus, and after paying some bills down, we decided to splurge)

So fast forward to today: my TV is on our dining table, back taken off, capacitors examined. I have a replacement kit in the mail, arriving Saturday, and I'm anxious to see if the $15 kit will bring back our sanity box.

If it fails, or if this isn't the root cause, an exact replacement for my TV is now at the low low price of $350, but it's the principle of the thing. Why buy a new set if the old one just needs some elbow grease and brow sweat?

In other news, we're trying to move. The school district we're in right now is so shitty, my kids come home depressed and angry every day. Both of them have teachers that cannot handle discipline problems in their classes, so they punish the entire class for the few issues that may come up.

I don't want my kids to lose any more of their spirit and drive. They're both good kids. They have compassion, alertness, curiosity, and drive. If they lose all that due to a shitty job (school), then I've failed as a parent.

So the area of town we're looking to move has great schools, is close to where I work (yay five minute drives!), and also has a  ton of stuff nearby for the wife to find a job. It's the right move for us right now, but I'm having doubts that we can afford the houses that are available.

Maybe my fears are unfounded. Maybe the move will be like new capacitors for the TV. Maybe I just need to pop the case and look inside for a few minutes to see what the problem is, and all will be well after shifting some things around.