O Christmas Tree,
O Christmas Tree,
You are a prelit wonder,
O Christmas Tree,
O Christmas Tree,
Four branches did not work.You were at Lowe's, you'd been returned,
I bought you at a steep discount,
O Christmas Tree,
O Christmas Tree,
I fixed you with my extreme technical skills and now you are fully lit like you were meant to be
and now we can enjoy you.
My poem is pretty good, but I think the last phrase is just a wee bit long.
Yes, I had a prelit tree that had a couple of broken branches. It turns out there is a special bulb that was "non-replaceable," but it was broken. The wires coming out of the little bulb weren't connecting the circuit they needed. Any other bulb could be missing without issue, but this one special bulb casing was different. I finally tracked it down, pulled it out, and replaced it with a normal bulb. It didn't work. This special receptacle was also white instead of green. But since the bulb came out without the casing, it was stuck inside the receptacle. I pried it out with some needle-nose pliers, bending it out of shape at the same time. This was all before I realized that this casing was special.
After some continuity testing with my digital multimeter, I tracked it back to the special receptacle that was now unidentifiable because it no longer had the special white color. I did realize later that it was slightly longer than the other receptacles. On a whim, I short-circuited the prongs inside the receptacle and the four unlit branches immediately lit up like…well…like a Christmas tree.
So I grabbed the bent-out-of-shape white casing, pulled a new bulb out of a good replacement light, and carefully straightened the whisper-thin wires coming out of the bulb so I could remove it. I then threaded it into the slightly-wonky-but-reshaped white casing and bent the wires into place. Luckily the green and white casings all used the same type of bulbs. After I replaced the newly fixed "unreplaceable" white casing the whole thing lit back up.
This all makes me wonder how normal people get by without technical skills. Oh wait, I know. They return it and buy another one at full price.