Sunday, December 14, 2014

Breaking News

Enjoyed a stay-at-home vacation last week—pretended I was rich and didn’t have to go to work. Really, I had a pretty full schedule of things I wanted to get done. But, as is usually the case, things don’t always cooperate.

The very first day, the washer broke and we had loads of laundry. I took it apart, trying to find what was wrong. After several hours I couldn’t find anything, so my wife and I went shopping. We almost bought a new one too, but when the lady at the store started backtracking on the advertised deal, my aversion to salesmen kicked in and I said, “No thanks.”

We went back home, without a washer, and I started looking for a good deal on the computer. Salesmen tend to do that to me; make me want to buy everything online. During my Internet travels, I came across a question and answer site for appliances, and there on the top was a guy saying he thought his door lid switch was bad. A light bulb suddenly turned on in my head!

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought to check the switch, but for some reason I hadn’t. Instead, I’d gone right to taking the whole thing apart.

Suspending my Internet activity, I went to test the switch and sure enough that was the problem. So for once, a pesky salesman, actually saved me money!

A quick Google search told me a new switch would cost me about thirty dollars plus shipping. Well, I didn’t feel like paying that much for a simple switch, (and waiting a week or so for it to be delivered) so, I just bypassed it. Took all of five minutes. And, it was free!

I know, for all of you safety minded people, the door switch is a vital and critical part of the washing machine! If you can’t tell, that last sentence was heavily laced with sarcasm. Washers worked fine for years without the door switch. If we need to turn it off, there’s a dial within easy reach—push it in and, like magic, the washer shuts off. Besides, bypassing the switch was a lot less work than replacing it.

But then, I had to put the rest of the washer back together. Figuring we were going to need a new one, I hadn’t bothered to reassemble anything, just left it sitting there in the laundry room in pieces.

Well, if you’ve ever worked on a washer, you know they don’t go back together quite as easily as they come apart. Four hours. That’s how long it took to get it ready to use. All in all, I’d spent somewhere around six hours taking it apart and then putting it back together. Had I checked the switch first, I could have saved myself a LOT of time! Good thing I was on vacation!

All is well that ends well, as the saying goes. The washer works. The laundry is caught up. And, some of the stuff I wanted to work on, I got done. But not all. Probably because I spent too much time on a washer! And now, it’s back to work. Maybe on my next vacation, I can fix the dryer!

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, and The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook and paperback on iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords, or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com. Amazon Profile - http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS. Bruce A. Borders also serves as the Vice President of Rave Reviews Book Club.

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