We stopped in to see our son and his family in Brookings, SD on Saturday on our way back from Wisconsin. Son loves to cook, and had a great meal planned for Sunday night, but asked me to make mashed potatoes. I obliged, and after I got the potatoes peeled and on the stove I started to clean up after myself.
No one told me that the garbage disposal doesn’t work very well, and that son never puts potato peelings down it. It clogged up, and the grinders seemed stuck and wouldn’t turn, either. Son said that he put a bunch of coffee grounds and egg shells down the disposal earlier that morning, and blamed himself, not me, for the problem. He said he knew that he shouldn’t have put those down the disposal.
Son and I tried our best to fix things. Son tried using the plunger to loosen whatever was jammed in the grinders. We also used a shop vac to suck any debris out. I figured out we needed a 1/4 inch Allen wrench to stick in the bottom of the disposal under the sink to loosen the internal grinder blades, After multiple treatments, we actually got it to loosen up and keep running. Then, for some odd reason, the dishwasher automatically started and began discharging water in the disposal and filling the sink twice with water full of potato peels and coffee grounds.
The dishwasher is programmed to turn on if it senses water collecting in the bottom. Our efforts to get the disposal running had apparently caused the water we poured into the disposal to back up into the dishwasher. A special code kept appearing on the dishwasher electronic display indicating that it was trying to rid itself of excess water. We couldn’t see any excess water in the dishwasher. The dishwasher was our of commission. At least the sinkswere cleared and the disposal worked.
Son called a real plumber who came out the next day and who cleared out any peels and grounds clogging the dishwasher. It still flashed the special code. The plumber said it was an electrical programing issue, and to call the appliance store to send out a technician. That person will arrive next Monday. I told our son to order a better garbage disposal, and that I will pay for it.
What activities did you like doing with your parents? Ever considered being a plumber or electrician?
Trail Baboon 
Plumbing and electrical are two jobs I will not tackle. I’m having some (hopefully) minor electrical problems lately. I’m thinking about calling an electrician although part of it I should be able to do myself. I know I will have to turn off the breaker switch to the basement area to replace two light fixtures which have stopped working. It will be completely dark. I will have to use a headlamp and a camp light to replace the fixtures and I’m terrified of touching the wrong wires together.
A couple of days ago, I plugged in the toaster in an outlet in the kitchen and the whole outlet exploded with a flash and a bang! It blew the fuse for the Beast refrigerator. That outlet will have to be replaced now. I don’t what caused it.
I dreamed last night that I went to the top of the basement stairs and flipped on the light. Nothing. Blackest darkness. I think I’ll call an electrician when I get home.
No plumbing problems right now but I have over-filled my garbage disposal too. I’m getting new counter tops and a new sink and faucet in a couple weeks. The new sinks are deeper which will bring the bottom of the garbage disposal almost to the bottom of the cabinet. I’m considering just eliminating the garbage disposal. I wish I had a compost heap. I do miss having that.
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Yeah, I think if I had some electrical thing explode, I would absolutely be calling electrician for that. When I first bought this house, I replaced a few of the light switches, which meant I had to turn off the electricity, do the work and then turn it back on but I haven’t really tried anything more than that.
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Did your two light fixtures stop working at the same time or separately? If the former, that would suggest the problem is systemic and not with the fixtures. That’s probably a puzzle for an electrician to solve.
Have you subsequently plugged the toaster in elsewhere? If so, that absolves the toaster from being the source of the electrical short. But still, the outlet was OK until you tried to use it. Something caused it to short. If not the toaster, then maybe a loose wire that got jiggled as you worked in the plug and shorted.
Plumbers love garbage disposals. They’re the source of a lot of work for them and, in my opinion, entirely unnecessary. One shouldn’t be flushing all that extra organic matter into the sewage system anyway.
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I’m not sure, but I think the light fixtures both stopped working at about the same time. I use one more than the other. It’s a simple open fixture for a standard bulb with a pull string. I was trying some new LED bulbs that were brighter. I never had trouble with an old 60watt bulb but it wasn’t very bright. Suddenly the pull string didn’t have that satisfying click anymore and no light. Later, I tried the other one and it didn’t work either. I don’t know what happened other than trying new LED bulbs. The toaster worked in a different outlet but I noticed that the plug wasn’t going in smoothly so I looked at it and it appears the prongs have melted. It works but I don’t trust it anymore. I think I’ll call an electrician. I can’t figure out which circuit those lights are on although I did figure out the outlet upstairs right away because it is labeled “Refrigerator”.
I agree about the garbage disposal. There is a service in Northfield that you can sign up for. They issue a compost container and come pick up your potato peels, coffee grounds and eggshells every couple of weeks. That might be the way to go.
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Our poor garbage disposal hasn’t gotten nearly as much use since organic recycling started in Minneapolis. Thank goodness.
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Yeah, wish we had that here.
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I barely use our garbage disposal, but our compost bin is almost non-existent at this point, so I end up putting it in the trash, which just feels so wrong. And no, to being a plumber or electrician.
I loved to be in the mountains with my folks – we did several vacations together around Estes Park – Dad like to take the hiking trails, and they usually rented a cabin across the road from the Big Thompson River, which was fascinating.
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I have a garbage disposal but have pretty much stopped using it. Nearly all my food scraps now go into organic recycling. As to plumbing and electrical issues, I leave them to the pros.
About the only activity I did with my parents was play golf.
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Regarding the “electrical programming issue” with the dishwasher, did you try rebooting it?
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We unplugged it and then plugged it in again. It still flashed the same code.
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There are limits to computerized appliances, and your son ran into the limit.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
I have a garbage disposal, but it is not used much. Most of the debris goes into the composter 8 months of the year. I agree with Bill, disposals are unnecessary and the water system does not need that organic matter that feeds algae.
As a small child I just loved going with my father on his Extension Service rounds (he was the Mills Co, Iowa, Extension Director) where he would meet with farmers and carry out the education function of his job by advising/informing the farmers about agricultural methods. That was fun and I felt like the “Queen of Everything” perched on his shoulders, or playing with farm kids. The most fun was bottle feeding lambs. Those babies pulled hard on that bottle. I enjoyed being with my mother when she was gardening. She could relax and enjoy that activity and not be critical in that setting. She grew tea roses, which she loved. She had a large collection of those that she babied and nurtured. Those are too putsy for my style, though.
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My father did everything himself, but things were simpler then except cast iron piping. And everything he did I did with him. Enjoy it? No, not really, but I learned so many things, principally, to keep my mouth shut.
Clyde
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My dad didn’t do any handyman stuff. His father always called on others for that kind of stuff so dad didn’t learn how to fix anything., nor was he interested in learning. Same for car maintenance/repair. Mom was our handyman. She would rather tackle plumbing and easy electrical issues than tackle housework. Good thing dad was a whiz with the vacuum cleaner!
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I loved being with my dad as he tinkered and fixed things. He had a coffee can full of old electrical outlets, and would give me screwdrivers and tools to take them apart and reassemble them. I have all his tools, and coffee cans full of nuts, bolts, washers, screws, nails, etc.
Whe I did my psychology internship at the VA hospital in Iowa, we had to go through all the vocational testing that the veterans receiving treatment did, just to understand their treatment at the hospital. My results came back that I had the aptitude to be an electrician.
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Was your internship at the Des Moines VA hospital?
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No, in Knoxville, a bit southeast of Des Moines.
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I think I could’ve been an electrician. It’s mostly connecting the right color to the right color., and getting the right result on the meter.
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And remembering to turn off the circuit breaker before you do any of that.
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eh, not necessarily… 🙂 I did finally get the new shop electrical hooked to the transformer today. The electrician, Red, could do that without killing power. I wasn’t home to watch.
The trick is knowing which PART of the wire is safe to touch. And 110V just gives you a bit of a shock. 220V will knock you off the ladder, and anything more than that will about kill you.
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Drive-in movies were a common weekend treat with Dad and Mom. We kids rarely remained awake for the second feature which is why pillows and blankets were available in the station wagon.
I would never consider being a plumber. Maybe electrician.
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Yes. The prospect of encountering sewage is unappealing.
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The main thing that I did with my parents growing up was play tennis. They were both avid tennis players and whenever they would go to the courts, my sister and I would tag along; when my parents were done with their games, then they would hit balls with my sister and I.
I do remember one thing that my dad and I used to do together when I was in high school. It only happened five or six times but all the times were memorable. He and I would go to the mall, to the local bookstore )which I’m sure was a B. Dalton and we would just shop. Often we would each have a very tall stack of books when it was time to check out. It was one of these forays that got me in trouble with The Exorcist.
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I don’t get the Exorcist part – I’m missing something…
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Sorry… I never know who has heard this story… I’ve told it many times in my life (because with hindsight, it’s funny). Came home from one of these shopping trips with The Exorcist. Didn’t know what it was — just bought it because it had a pretty display in the front of the store. Started reading it a couple of weeks later at bedtime. At 3 am I called the dog upstairs and locked her into the room with me on the theory that dogs sense the supernatural before humans do. Finished the book at 5 am. No sleeping after that, and not much sleep for a few more nights . And I was a lot more careful about what I just willy-nilly picked up at the bookstore after that.
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Remind me not to read it, either.
(No doubt you’ve told it here before, and I’ve forgotten the details.)
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And no, not even for the smallest smidge of time have I ever considered being an electrician or plumber.
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I have replaced a garbage disposal twice in the 35 years I’ve owned my house. I don’t use the disposal for things like potato peelings or coffee grounds, and certainly not eggshells. Most stuff goes on the compost heap. Egshells I crush and bury in the garden when I plant stuff in the spring, since they don’t break down very well in the compost heap. They just sit there without decomposing. If they are buried near the roots of a tomato plant, they will at least leach a little mineral content for the roots of the plant to feed on. I bury a lot of banana peels in the spring, too.
I want the garbage disposal only so that I don’t have to worry about dumping the dishwater down the drain. I don’t want to have to clean out the sink strainer. Life’s too short.
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The first time I replaced the garbage disposal, I was very miffed that it didn’t include an electrical cord. The instructions said to cut the cord off the old disposal and install it on the new one. I called the company and complained, but I did get it done. When I replaced it the second time, I made sure that the new disposal came with its cord already attached. Didn’t want to have to do that again.
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I don’t think I’ve ever lived anywhere that had a garbage disposal, and I’ve never missed having one.
Favorite to things to do with my parents go back to when I was still in grade school. I loved it when we’d pack a picnic basket and headed out on our bicycles. Most memorable outings were our mushroom hunting forays into the countryside, and our trips to a distant beach for swimming. I had my own bicycle so could ride myself. Mom and dad each had a seat for my sister on their bike, and whichever one wasn’t transporting her, brought along the picnic paraphernalia.
The parental excursions I enjoyed the most, however, was fishing with dad. Just the two of us. Neither Randi nor mom enjoyed sitting in the boat for hours waiting for the fish to bite, so they usually opted to stay home, especially if it was a bit windy. As far as dad and I was concerned, the windier it was and the more choppy the waves, the better.
Becoming either an electrician or a plumber was never a consideration, very possibly for all the wrong reasons.
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I can “do” repairs to things like appliances that you suggest, but I don’t do them well. My father instilled in me a tendency to take too many shortcuts, and it has plagued me into my 8th decade. I can understand some of the mysteries of wiring, but I’d never venture to fix the wires in anyone else’s house. I can understand some issues of plumbing, but wouldn’t work on someone else’s place, lest my deficiencies cause them leaks.
I grew up as a suburban kid in Los Angeles, so a garbage disposal was just part of the equipment through the time I left home at 18. After that, I’ve never resided in a household with one. Coffee grounds, egg shells, peelings and leftover food go into the box at the foot of the backyard (along with lawn trimmings and assorted dug-up plants). The drains run cleanly.
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