Handy Mack

When the Scout Master travels, I always cross my fingers and hope that there are no issues with any of our major appliances while he's away.  Our garbage disposal has been temperamental since we moved into this house.  It works, but sometimes it sounds like it's not going to be working much longer.   So, this morning at 6:00am, when I flipped on the switch and heard nothing...and saw no water draining...I realized that the time had probably come to replace the garbage disposal. 

The Scout Master is, of course, out of town, so I texted him in HOU and said, "Well, the disposal officially died, I think." (with a little frowny faced guy next to it.)  He texted back, "That's bad timing.  Is there any way you can wait until I get home to get it fixed?"  I couldn't.  I was frustrated about the disposal, but I was more frustrated that I had standing yucky water in my sink and that it might be there until Friday morning!  I would have called someone right that minute to come and fix it, but it was only 6:45am. 

The kids gradually wandered into the kitchen to get breakfast, so I warned them, "Please don't run the water in the sink.  It's not draining.  And the disposal isn't working."  Since Mack was standing nearby, and since the words "not working" pique his interest, he decided to check out the problem.   

He looked in the sink and said, "Mommy, is it because there's a cup in there?"

 can you see that green cup in there?  yeah...I couldn't either. 

It turns out that those little plastic cups fit right down into the drain of my sink, but not ALL the way down, and if there's water in there already and the cup happens to be dark green, you really can't see it.  And a cup in the drain muffles the sound of the disposal just enough that it sounds like it's not working, and so you just assume it's dead.  

Apparently the expertise of an observant eight year old was all I really needed to avoid my frustration this morning.  I'm glad to know that I don't have to cross my fingers anymore and hope that nothing will break while the Scout Master is traveling.  I can just have my handy little Mack fix it for me.  He got plenty of hugs this morning and high fives for being so awesome!