Enough with the lightbulbs already

This house that I live celebrates the diversity of lightbulbs.

Me, I've spent most of my adult life in apartments that offer the basics: a light in the kitchen, a light in the bathroom, a light in the bedroom. All taking your traditional 60 watt bulb.

But this house must do more. Despite needing a whole lot of work (like, maybe the foundation and the walls could learn to meet), this house has been redone mainly in the area of ligthing. Track lighting in the kitchen. A chandalier (nothing fancy) in the dining area. Recessed lighting in the living room. Another kind of track lighting altogether upstairs. All requiring their own special bulbs.

That's all well and good, but the problem is that I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the halogen lamps (in the kitchen track lighting) out of their holders. At this point, I've just got one (out of six) left burning. When that one goes, I'll be left in the dark. (Well, not really. There's a recessed light over the sink.)

The little halogen lamps are held in place by these hard plastic claws. The claws don't move, that I can tell. They hold the little lamps in place. They won't let go.

And so I cursed the people who put them there. Why did they need track lighting in here? (When I first moved in and all the lights shone brightly, I loved the track lighting. Things change.) Why can't we just have a simple incandescent bulb?

At least I replaced some bulbs. The one over the fireplace. The one over the staircase. The one in the foyer.

It's getting dark earlier. Suddenly we realized we needed more light.