This used to be a much longer blog entry--nearly 1,000 words of boredom. [Now it’s only 750 words of tedium. Waka-waka!] I was in some kind of a mood when I wrote it. The gist of it is the following summary: The dishwasher sprang a leak and I caulked it up, only nearly breaking the rest of the dishwasher in the process.
My thesis: I think I am pretty handy around the house, but due to some variables in my handiness equation I run a high risk of causing more damage than I cure.
That’s right, a handiness equation. More on that after the tale.
Last spring, we discovered water coming from under the dishwasher every cycle. Not so much that an old bath towel shoved under the washer couldn’t soak it all up, so for a month or two we made do. But come summer I decided to fix it properly. I traced the leak underneath the dishwasher and reasoned that it was either a leaky hose or a leaky gasket. I’m not sure I know quite what a gasket is, but I think it’s like a rubber washer that forms a seal between two hard surfaces, and that sounded like a potential leak source. I had seen the Sears repairman fix our washer previously by taking out the motor assembly from within the tub (turns out olive pits don’t get chewed up by the impeller--they just clog up the works until nothing turns). That was as good a place to start as any. I’ve always been good at taking things apart, so this went swimmingly. I was soon awash in dishwasher parts.
After I disassembled the entire motor housing, I discovered that I hadn’t needed to do any of that work in the first place. The leak was simply coming from a hole in the tub itself, caused by some melted plastic that was stuck on the tub floor after a plastic bottle lid was melted by the heating element once several years ago. The melted plastic, though I had scraped up what I could, continued to heat up during every wash cycle, eventually melting in its turn the dishwasher tub, until finally the hole found daylight under the washer. I hadn’t needed to take ANYTHING apart to find this leak--it was right in plain sight, easily accessible, simply explained, and effortlessly repaired.
So, time to reassemble the motor housing. Funny thing: assembly is always harder than disassembly. I managed to strip a plastic threading that held the water sprayer in place, and only after 45 minutes of fuming and forcing and fudging and other f-words, I got it back so that it A) stayed on and B) turned freely. I’m not sure it’ll ever come off again. After that, just for good measure, I poked a hole with a screwdriver in one of the filter screens. I don’t think I’ve ever actually experienced an emotion that could be described as apoplectic until that moment.
Two hours after beginning the process of fixing the dishwasher, I simply daubed some heat-resistant silicone caulk into the hole and plugged it up. The dishwasher hasn’t leaked since. For good measure, I repaired the damaged filter screen with the same caulk.
The end result is that I fixed the leak in the dishwasher. But in the process I damaged two other parts of the dishwasher, making another problem that much more likely, although so far, so good. So now, the Equation:
(self-perceived handiness + troubleshooting effort) x action taken
damage done during action
The higher the number, the handier one actually is. I have left Time Spent on Project out of the equation, because that in itself contains too many variables: being handy doesn’t mean you’ll have the right supplies or won’t be interrupted by 2-year-olds. Plus, I’m not sure how to put that into the equation. I think what I’m seeking here is an “Actual Handiness Ratio,” but maybe someone with stronger conceptual math skills can help out. I realize that this is not nearly a complete equation, but it sure seems logical to me that the handier one thinks one is, the bigger the action one will take to fix things, and the stronger the likelihood that one will screw something up in the process.
Does that apply to raising children, too? I hope not.
Haha! Tad that is hilarious :) you sound like Andy... he is going to have a look at that equation and get back to you. He thinks there may be a need for a log scale in there somewhere.
ReplyDeleteChrista & Andy