Sunday Morning Post (V.2 #14) - My Kingdom for A CD Player

It is the end of the third week of work from home isolation and we have two crises to deal with.  One: it’s been two weeks and our nearest grocer still cannot get any toilet paper in for their customers.  A bit of hardship for me and Warrior Queen to be sure, but when one considers the bigger picture it is really a very minor inconvenience.  That bigger picture includes all of the grocery store workers who are still working and reporting for minimum wage, less than full time hours duty (sans benefits) in what is now possibly a life or death environment.

For them I am most grateful for their dedication.  I also should not fail to mention all of the health care workers in the hospitals fighting this pandemic and risking their own health.

Two: the CD changer in my 30-year-old stereo system has decided to stop working.  To be fair, we have not played compact discs in this player for years. The system is part of a larger system with an ancient turntable (also not used in years despite my massive vinyl collection) and radio receiver.  We really have only used the system in recent years to listen to baseball games and our favorite radio show on Sunday nights.   Alas there is no baseball game to listen to yet and the radio station with our favorite show is signing off at the end of the month.

I considered it a miracle that I was able to play any of the discs from the Nat King Cole box set I got for Christmas.  They played very well considering the player was inactive for so long, but when it came time to remove the changer from the unit, the player would not push the changer cartridge forward so I can pull it out.  The auto open and control door appear to be out of whack.

I assume the first remedy would be to apply WD40 to the insides, but I don’t want to get any of this wonder spray on the actual CDs.  I foresee unhooking the unit from the stereo receiver and taking it to a professional electronics expert who may have to dismantle the whole unit to extricate my Nat King Cole CDs.  I realize that this will not happen anytime soon since we are still on lockdown and only allowed to venture out for groceries and prescriptions.  Moot point anyway.  The electronics shop is likewise closed for the duration since, I believe, they would be considered non-essential.

In the meantime, Warrior Queen will contact our favorite neighborhood tech geek who has been very helpful with our computer problems in the past. I’m guessing that there is only so much he can do at the moment beyond offer an online consultation.  Any help from him would be appreciated. 

Likewise, I’ll throw this out to any blog readers who may know a thing or two about my electronics problem.  Why should our local tech geek have all the fun?  Let me know if you can advise me what can or can’t be done, even as I know I have given you very limited information about my problem.  I’ll consider any suggestion up and including administering last rites to the player.

In the meantime, everyone stay safe.

(Thank you for reading. And oh yes, Happy Easter!)