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Ed came home from his errands and put the groceries into the cupboard and
the refrigerator. He grabbed a flathead screwdriver and a pair of pliers from
his toolbox. In the kitchen, he got down on his hands and knees and turned on
the flashlight. After a couple of minutes of looking, he decided what to do. He
had never opened up a disposal before, but there is a first time for
everything.
The cylindrical disposal was about 7 inches in diameter and had a
horizontal seam dividing the top half from the bottom half. The halves were held
together by three screws. Ed jiggled the bottom half of the disposal; it was
loose because two of the three screws were corroded. Only one screw was still
doing its duty. Ed unscrewed it.
The bottom half of the disposal was now lying on the cabinet floor. Ed
thought for sure that it would be full of months-old food, but there was no
food, only a hardened, torn, useless gasket. The next day Ed went to the
hardware store to buy some screws and a new gasket. The employee told him that
they did not carry those gaskets and suggested that he write to the
manufacturer. Ed returned home. He created his own gasket by using gasket
sealant that comes in a tube. He applied the sealant, screwed the two halves
back together, and crossed his fingers.
The next day he turned on the water and switched on the disposal. When he
saw the water pouring out of the seam, Ed knew one thing: it was time to buy a
new disposal. The good thing was that new disposals started at $79. The bad
thing was that it would have to be installed by a plumber. Plumber rates started
at about $80 an hour. Ed decided that since the disposal used a lot of energy
and the world needed to use less energy, from now on he would put his scraps
into the kitchen garbage bag. He reminded himself to tell everyone at work
tomorrow about how he was now helping to solve the world’s energy problems. |
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发表于 2016-7-10 09:21:43