In this life, there are days it is better to lie low, days when everything you touch turns to compost.

Most days I am building something. It is what I do.

Today was not a really bad day, but it sure seems that way in review.

Out of the gate this morning, I was at odds with technology. There is (er, was) a one-cup coffee maker in our kitchen. You hit the switch once and the coffee appears. Very simple.

Except this morning, the coffee did not appear. I held the switch down and got the smell of burned plastic. No coffee today.

Maybe it just needs to cool down.

Went to work to get ready to ship out a bunch of wood boiler tanks that are two weeks overdue. I have been struggling with a plastic welder for three weeks. After the swearing and occasional throwing, I stopped to analyze the situation and figured out what the problem was. (Note to self – don’t throw stuff. It scares the employees and does not convince the equipment to heal itself.)

So here comes the truck. I start to load it with our electric forklift and the forklift dies. It dies right as I drop a pallet into the truck. It is now blocking the back of the truck.

I call around for service, a spare forklift or a sign from God.

Hamilton Marine has a forklift, and they send it and an operator down to bail me out.

Good people!

I run home to get my truck so I can drag the broken forklift away from the back of the truck. We accomplish that task and finish getting the truck loaded and out the door.

We then fuss with the electric forklift so we can get it inside by pushing and pulling the lift truck with my truck. What a good time.

I hop into the truck to go home, no brakes. Pedal to the floor. (Note to state of Maine – I don’t care what you say. That stuff that goes on the roads is eating up our vehicles. I have a metallurgist to prove it.)

Fortunately, I am an optimist. Life foists upon us good days and bad days. This was not too bad a day. The universe requires equilibrium, and there are some days like this.

Technology just makes it more interesting.

Tonight, being Mr. Fixit, I thought I should try to impress my wife and disassemble the coffee maker. I needed a pan-head screwdriver and did not want to go downstairs to get one, so I took out the Swiss Army knife. (Note to self – keep Band Aids close by. Those stupid knife screwdrivers fold in when you least expect it. This makes it hard to type a column.)

If you have ever taken a coffee maker apart, you will realize that there is little to repair.

It is fun to look at, though. I think that is a guy thing.

A $20 coffee maker is a wonder of functional engineering: It doesn’t electrocute you; it makes coffee, usually, and it is a delightfully complicated device for $20. Yes, it is made in a foreign country and it broke within a year, but it worked for a little while.

Lessons from today: Tomorrow will be a better day, and you get what you pay for.

Oh, one more thing, for those engineering types, the manual reset snap switch that was the on-off control on the coffee maker broke.

Tea, anyone?

Questions for Tom Gocze should be sent to homefront @bangordailynews.net or mailed to The Home Page, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329. A library of his practical home-improvement videos, reference material and a home-project blog are at bangordailynews.com/thehomepage.