• a 12 pack of Ramen for $2.42
• two 6 packs of Ramen for $2.40
• twelve individuals packs of Ramen for $2.00 (those prices might be off, but you get the picture)

So frustrating! Sometimes they do the same thing with cereal: cheaper to get two small boxes than one big box. Come on, Hy-Vee, quit interfering with economies of scale!

Opening up the case, I saw the problem: the connection from the jack to the tuner had broken. So I headed off to Lowe’s for a soldering kit. Faced with several choices, I went for the kit that, for the same price, also functioned as a mini-torch.

I failed, however, to notice the print on the underside of the box that informed me that the kit did not include butane. The kit was not only “refillable”–filling was mandatory.

So I headed out again, this time to Wal-Mart for some butane. Got it home, filled the soldering iron, and made the repair. Or so I thought. But after hooking it up, the TiVo still couldn’t tune any channels. So I disconnected it.

Then, while reconnecting the other TiVo, I noticed that it couldn’t find a signal either. That’s when I realized: in my efforts to prevent the RF jack from breaking again, I had switched cables to one that I could connect easier, but I had plugged that cable into the wrong wall jack.

So my repair probably worked. Sadly, while disconnecting the TiVo I was less than careful, turning the jack hard enough to break the connection again and leave the jack spinning freely. Meaning I get to repeat the whole process all over again.