Monday, July 28, 2008

handy woman

I think I'm a pretty handy girl. I first discovered this when I clogged up my kitchen sink in B'ville. I really needed my father to come fix it but he was out of town. So I had to go find a wrench, I even knew what to call it, and unclogged the sink all by myself. (I did call my father and tell him all about it. He was proud.) I even knew to put a bucket underneath the drain so after I opened it I wouldn't be sloshed in the face. Then I flushed the "stuffing" down the toilet--because it has a larger opening and I didn't want to clog the sink again.

The second handy thing I've done is fix my constantly running toilet all by myself. This time I did ask my dad for some help, but he told me he really didn't think I needed a whole new flushing mechanism. (How he's showed me many times to fix a leaking toilet.) I even looked on-line for some guidelines. (No help.) So I opened the lid and tinkered with the knob on top. AND IT STOPPED RUNNING!!

My latest attempt was at my Smith and Hawkens nozzle. I was watering one day and after I released the lever, it continued to run. So I unscrewed it from the hose and there was a lot of calcium build-up. After cleaning it up I tried it again, no help. So I unscrewed the knob thing (just so you know, to be handy you don't have to know all the names of things) and a spring launched out. I tried to take all the calcium deposits off of it as well. Then I reattached everything. Still not working.

So, I thought to myself, "Well it works when the spring isn't loaded in there. Maybe it needs some grease." But I didn't have any grease or WD-40. But I did have some Pam. Similar, right? And you know what, it worked.

So just a few minutes and some patience and handiness and I saved myself $25 dollars for another nozzle. Pretty impressed with myself so I'm now sharing all my handy tips: If you are out of WD-40, Pam works well.

See you don't need a man for everything . . . .

2 comments:

Miranda said...

Sarah! Just stumbled on your blog from another. (isn't it funny how that works??) I always knew you were a handy gal. I'm excited that I found you on here. I'm adding you to my list of must reads. =)

Courtney said...

so does baby oil. i love being handy too! i used baby oil to help my grandma's doors (ALL.OF.THEM.) from squeaking