A vacuum cleaner saved my life
I could say that I am quite handy. I kind a like to fix things.
Anything that is broken attracts me like a hidden treasure waiting to be open up.
Sometime, I will find that it is not worth fixing, but not everything is lost.
In the process of trying to fix it, I usually learn a little something about how things work.
I have fixed and adjusted so many things that it became a second nature for me.
Here is a little adventure that happened to me while I was trying to fix a broken drainpipe in the basement of a three-story apartment building that I own. In the process of trying, with a screwdriver, to remove the last piece of cast iron around the edge of the open pipe. I dropped by accident the screwdriver into the pipe. It fell in a foot inside the pipe until it got stuck in a 45° elbow. So here I was trying to catch the screwdriver with a plumber’s snake but the only thing I was doing is pushing it further inside the pipe. I could think of no way to catch that screwdriver, a magnet would not work because of the plastic handle. I could already imagine myself digging in the cement floor to change that part of the pipe where the screwdriver was stuck. I was not having a good time; all the kitchen sinks in the building were out of commission until I could fix this. I did not have a lot of tool with me. So I start looking around in desperation and upon looking on my shop vac I realized I had found a solution. Lucky I had my little shop vac with me that day. with its 1 inch and a quarter diameter long and narrow plastic tip. I was able to remove by suction the screwdriver from the pipe. So if you ever happen to drop something into a place out of reach remember that a vacuum cleaner could save your life.