The laundry basket lies overflowing in the corner.

“The laundry machine is broken, what do you want me to do?” she hollers.

The damn thing has not drained itself in three days. I suggested she call the maintenance. But somehow help never came. I finally had a day off and the stench of the dirty water was starting to pollute the air inside the apartment.

I have had enough. I had to do something about it or spend the rest of my day in the foul air. I have no clue as to how a washing machine works. Never have had any experience with machinery, or any kind of repairs. But this agenda demanded solution and I was determined to find it. I gathered all the little tools I had around. A couple of pliers, battery operated screw drivers and few old screws and bolts. But some thing was missing.

Beer!

Got me a six pack and off I went. I tried to study how a washing machine works and all its components. It was me against the machine. It took me a good thirty minutes to disassemble the whole thing. Basic physics and some common sense is all it took to figure out the working mechanism of the machine. The only reason the water could not drain out, had to be a clog in the drainage pipe. That was my diagnosis. A good twenty minutes of scuffle landed me at a drainage tube which felt suspicious. From just feeling it from outside, I could tell the problem was exactly at that spot. I could feel almost a round soft object just stationary at the juncture of the hose and the excretion line. The factory made equipment was tough to disassemble. After finally getting the clips off the hose I reached in and grabbed a single piece of sock out.

A single sock had ruined the day. I made a mess by spilling the dirty water all over the place after releasing the clog. But the joy that I obtained by just figuring this out was an elevation I had never attained at any kind of work. I needed a replacement for the clip that held the hose to the disposal pipe. I found a radiator hose clip, modified it a little bit to fit my needs.

The magic of working with your hands, Ice cold beer and sweaty arm pits and fixing shit, every cell in my body oozes manhood.