GRATITUDE MADE ME $190

Good day and I hope you are having a great week.

You have heard me talk about gratitude before on this blog and you know what a huge fan of giving thanks I am, and today I want to give a really simple and practical example of it.

A few months back I got a call from a tenant that the garbage disposal in the their unit stopped working. So I started  to look for a plumber and on my way to Costco I saw a van in front of me and would you believe it was a local plumber.  I called his number and as we both were stopped at the red light we chatted a bit and he was able to see my tenant that same day.

He was very quick and I got a call from him telling me that he was “able to resurrect the disposal without any need to replace it, saving me around $200”. I was very thankful as he was very professional, and prompt and did a good job from the feedback I got from my tenants. He sent me the bill for $95, and included his card which I field for future use.

I was very thankful that things worked out well because I was on my way out of town the next day and needed to have the situation worked out quickly and efficiently. While I was traveling and sitting in my hotel room the next day for some strange reason I started to look on YouTube searching for Garbage Disposal repair. As you might guess with an open and general question like that there are millions of videos that come up, but one really caught my eye. I think it was titled something to the effect of “fix your garbage disposal without getting wet or dirty”.  I am paraphrasing about the title as unfortunately I do not remember the exact title but if you search for garbage disposal repair on YouTube you are sure to find it.  I looked at the video and in about 10 minutes the professional in the video showed me how I could take a 5/4 Allan wrench and stick it into the little hole on the bottom of the garbage disposal and by swinging it left and then right a few times, manually dislodge any debris from the disposal unit. In fact it mentioned that most garbage disposal come with an Allan Wrench for this exact purpose. This technique also gave a great indication if there was something really stuck in there without having to put my hand inside the unit.

 I did not think much about it, until about a month or so later when the garbage disposal in my house stopped moving and just hummed.  I looked inside the sink and could not really see anything in there and that is when I remembered this video. Sure enough I got the Allan wrench and wiggled it back and forth and whammo the thing started working like magic. That just saved me about $95.

Yesterday as I was coming back home from a trip I got a call from my tenant that the garbage disposal went out and they could not get it going again. So I thought let me go and check it out before calling the plumber this time. So here I go with my tool box, which included my magic tool the Allan Wrench kit, looking like I know what I am doing. Now if you know me, you know well that I am really not that mechanically inclined. So it was really a site to see.

But sure enough, the same thing happened. I turned the thing on and reset it but it did not even hum. So I took the Allan Wrench out and wiggled it a bit this way and that way and sure enough, after running the water and turning the disposal on everything worked like magic. My tenant was so impressed at the speed with which I fixed the issue, and asked what did you do. Now he is into construction and has been a painter and all that, so when I showed him the little trick and told him where I learned it he was very happy. I bet he spend some quality time on YouTube that night researching the technique. J

So there goes another $95 in my pocked that would have been spent on plumber. After each incident I gave thanks to the professional on YouTube and the amazing technology that brings all this information to me in a matter of seconds with a few clicks here and there. We are so fortunate to be living in this time of information technology and the fact that people are nice enough to share their skills with the rest of the world without expectation of compensation. You know that is when prosperity flows to them. So I hope the professional on the YouTube video gets tons and tons of cash because he really not only has saved me a few times now with the repair, but has given me the freedom of having to wait for a plumber, as well as a new skill that I did not possess.

I hope you enjoyed this post and as always please feel free to share this and other posts with those who may benefit from it. To your success till the next time.