Macho:

There are challenges in life that bring out the macho in the man. Today, the challenge was my electric razor. I want to change the razor's battery, because it holds a charge for about 36 hours. My razor is held shut by two screws. Removing them allows me to see what the battery is and order a replacement. Or so I thought.

The two screws were screwed in tight. The screwheads seemed to require a Phillips screwdriver, but the depression in the center of the screwhead wase shallow. That meant a screwdriver of the approximate correct size did not make firm contact with the screwhead slots, and the screw refused to turn. I tried small regular screwdrivers, and they got into the slots, but they were too fragile to survive enough torque to turn the screws. (If you're wondering, the screws looked like they would not fit a “star” screwdriver either.)

So I took my razor to my Ace hardware store to find the ideal screwdriver. And when I quickly failed, I asked an employee to try. This guy took more than ten minutes, trying many screwdrivers, twisting with all his might, and stripping my screwheads. When none of the store's screwdrivers fit, he pulled his own eighteen-screwdriver thingy out of his pocket and kept trying. Well, eventually he gave up, but not before using up all his macho spirit.

I asked him to select the Phillips screwdriver that came closest to matching the screw, and I bought it. I took it home and clipped the point off the screwdriver. It now fit perfectly into the screwhead, and wish I had some good news to report.

I got the razor partly open and discovered that a wire is actually GLUED to th outer surface of the battery. Opening the razor fully will require fiddling a lot of wires. It does not look like an operation for the casual end-user.

Now I went macho on my previous electric razor, trying to install batteries and watching a few small parts spring across the room and vanish. Enough! I got this razor at a great price, and it will cost almost as much to send it away for a battery change.