"Beneath the cabinets in my kitchen is a row of fluorescent lights that illuminate the countertops. One of those lights has decided to go all Baghdad on me. It crackles and pops and blinks for the entire time it is on. You might be thinking this is no big problem. All I have to do is change the fluorescent bulb, right?
"My problem is that the light bulb is encased in some sort of impenetrable container with no indication of how it opens. This is where a "handy" person would take one look at it, squeeze the end of the container with his pudgy, oil-stained fingers, slide open the nearest drawer, tap on the side of the toaster with a wooden spoon, and the casing would fall open. The solution would be "obvious" to someone with that sort of skill. Sigh.
"I go through life like Helen Keller in a room full of Rubic's Cubes. For me, changing this light bulb is like figuring out how to sneak the Mona Lisa out of the Louvre. The light casing has no latches, no buttons, no instructions, no little holes to stick a screwdriver in, no clues whatsoever. I have not ruled out the possibility that it came here from the future."
If you can help Scott (creator of the Dilbert comic strip), visit his blog at: