Secret of The missing sock.

Many years ago my washing machine stopped working. Being a self educated mechanical genus, I decided to fix it myself. I turn the machine on its side and started to work on it. I spent about a day and a half and just couldn’t figure out what the problem was. So finally, I called the repair guy. When he saw the machine on its side, he smiled, “Did you do that? I replied, “a yeah.”  He retorted, “That was not a good idea.” Then he asked me to help him set the machine back on it’s feet. He pointed to a puddle of oil like liquid on the floor. “That’s the transmission fluid, he smiled. See when you turn the machine on its side, it leaks out of the breather hole, so I’m afraid I can’t fix this for you, buddy, the machine is shot.”  “Well can’t we just put more transmission fluid in, I smiled?”  “It’s a sealed transmission and breather hole is tiny, my friend. “Well can’t somebody fix it? “Well you could send it back to factory; it would probably only cost 7 or 8 hundred bucks. Of course, that might not make a lot of sense considering it’s a five year old machine that only cost 300 bucks new.” “So I guess I should buy a new machine?” “I would say so, he smiled”  “Well, what do I owe ya, I asked. He braced and a “here we go look" creeped up on his face..."60.00 bucks…30 for the time coming out here and 30 for the time going back." He seemed to be expecting an argument. But instead, I just smiled, “Thanks and handed him the sixty bucks. I guess he appreciated me not giving him a hard time, so he smiled, “You know what, let me take a look at something.” He bent down and disconnected the drain hose. Then he pulled a black sock out of the machine. “That was your initial problem, he smiled.  Then he let me in on one of the secrets of the ages. He said, “Ya know, 95 per cent of the time it’ a sock stuck in the pump. Ya see socks every once in a while creep up the walls of the tank during the spin cycle. They go over the edge and most of the time go right out the drain into the sewer and out to sea. However, every once in a while they get stuck in the pump on the way out. So that’s first place you look, when there’s a problem.”

I thanked him for the tip and ended up buying a new machine. Low and behold, a year later, the new machine stopped. The first thing I did was to disconnect the drain hose, and there he was, the fugitive caught in the act of escape.

So do not worry and morn the lost of that once faithful sock, the one that got away. I assure you, it’s on a beach somewhere taking in the sun with it's mates.