You may be asking, what does a
jammed garbage disposal have to do with eLearning?
Well, folks, we had just bought a new disposal a couple of years ago, and a narrow glass bottle fell into the darn thang, and it jammed, so instead of calling the plumber (or even the store I bought it from), I consulted the Internet (the "e" part) and Googled "jammed garbage disposal" for solutions (the "Learning" part).
Found
this link - this in effect was the
courseware. Among other things, I learned that the humming sound was the circuit breaker keeping the motor from overheating - in other words, electricity still flowed into the unit. They then suggested that I turn the central hex opening at the bottom of the unit to manually turn the motor and see if I could loosen the obstruction. Problem - I didn't have the correct size Allen wrench to do this. Solution - I found a sorta L-shaped thingy for a replaceable-head screwdriver that just happened to fit the opening.
So then I started to try to turn the motor, and the dang thing wouldn't budge. Then it budged a little. Then a bit more. Then a bit more as I heard a grinding sound as I turned it - hoping I was grinding the glass piece by hand, rather than stripping the gears. Tried running the disposal - still nothing but a humming sound. Finally, the thingy spun in a complete circle w/ no resistance, turned on the water, turned on the disposal - success! Last but not least, it handled cat food and coffee grounds as good as new.
Lessons learned:
- eLearning is all around you
- Feels good to not have to spend the money to call a repairman!
