Necessity

There are certain things in life that become necessities because they're actually used. Coffee pot & grinder is one; dainty handtowel in the bathroom is another (took me forever after getting married to get used to it, to figure out how to use it without messing up the decor). In our kitchen, "sink disposer" is another thing that's more than a luxury. A couple of days ago, I don't know what I was grinding in there when it stopped - just stopped. You could hear the motor, but nothing turning. Then the motor stopped - no sound or vibration at all when flipping the switch. I found a reset button that caused the motor to engage, but still no movement on the blades. It was hosed.

I asked my brother if he'd ever worked on one & knew how to fix it. His advice: go to Lowe's and get a new one, since it's probably burned out. Well, at this point I decided to wait until payday to make that trip, and spent a little while last night pricing units online - $70 to $1,000 - holy cow!

At that point in time, my superior reasoning skills finally kicked in to try to google some troubleshooting stuff for disposer units. I found one good site, found a 1/4" allen wrench, and went to work. I looked funny - and would've been maimed if anyone had pulled that switch, I'm sure. But it worked - I fixed the in-sink-erator. It grinds again, and I can rest knowing that I didn't have to write out a repair bill to a plumber and I didn't have to watch a home-fix-it show to figure out how to replace the thing myself.

For one shining moment, I was the man. And I think the sink wanted to thank me.