Something Lite: The Insinkerator and the Popsicle Stick

This is a story in the life of my family.  Our garbage disposal stopped working about a week ago.  Not all at once, but over a couple of minutes.  I was running it and heard an interesting noise coming from the inside of the sink.  It sounded like the sound me having to spend money to repair something.  Then it went silent.  I flipped the switch a couple of times and nothing happened.  "Oh great,"  I thought.  "Something else to fix."   I decided to not touch it for a couple of days and pray that it would just decide to work later.  Two days later, my wife Stacey decides she really likes the concept of a working garbage disposal in the house.  So she tells me to call our home warranty company.  You know who they are don't you?  They are the people that charge you $60 per visit just to tell you that you should pour vinegar down the pipe. 

Well, I didn't want to spend $60 dollars.  So I did the one thing that threatens the peace of any family home.  I pulled out the toolbox.  And Stacey left the room.  I have to tell you that I currently have a thirty minute rule when it comes to figuring out how things work around the house.  If I can't completely figure out how to fix something within thirty minutes, I call someone who can.  The thirty minute rule is a direct result of my trying to replace the door frame in the pantry by myself.  Let's just say that the two months that we didn't have a door in place was not a good time for me and my man ego.  But I won't tell you that story yet. 

So after spending some time messing with the wrong end of the garbage disposal, I went to one of my favorite sites in the world. It's called http://www.howstuffworks.com/. If you ever have to figure out something, go to this site. At the very least, it will point you in the right direction. The first thing that I discovered there was that there is a cut-off mechanism on garbage disposals that recognizes when the disposal is clogged up with an item that it cannot not easily cut. In this case, the item was a wooden popsicle stick that a certain six year old threw into the sink (he's helping).  This keeps your garbage disposal from burning out the motor (very smart). There is also a reset button that allows the disposal to run again. That is found under the bottom of the garbage disposal. I did not notice this button before because I can honestly say that I have never looked under the bottom of the disposal before.  And then there is a hole in the bottom of the disposal. This hole is where the garbage disposal wrench goes. And what is a garbage disposal wrench? I'm glad you asked that question! It is this thing:

The InSinkErator WRN-00 JamBuster Wrenchette is basically an allen wrench with an extra bend in it.  It is larger than your standard allen wrench because the people that make the garbage disposal have to have another way to make money off of you.  So they created this "special tool" with the name etched on the handle that you can only get from Home Depot for $6.75.  So it's 9:30 pm on a Thursday night and I'm on my way to get the tool that I have never heard of so that I won't kill my son for throwing his popsicle sticks in the garbage disposal and won't have to sedate my wife because there are pipes on the floor because I had to take apart the pipes to take the garbage disposal out but I didn't really need to take the garbage disposal out and I hope I didn't mess something up and I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to go to work and she's starting to get nervous because she doesn't want me to break anything else and I know this is a run-on sentence but you get my point and what is that string of black gunk that I just pulled out of the pipe and is Home Depot still open? 

So I go to Home Depot and they have the InSinkErator JamBuster Wrenchette in stock.  Yes!  I look at it and say to myself, "I can't believe that I have to pay seven bucks for a allen wrench with a handle on it.  But I do.  And as I am driving home, I'm hoping that this stupid thing will allow me to go to bed without tearing up the foundation of the house.  Because I will if I have to.  Thankfully, the wrenchette worked.  Two quick twists, and the disposal was HEALED!!  THE CRISIS IS OVER!!

And then we went to sleep.

Peace and Love

 
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