what the internets don't teach u about disposals

Just before I left to meet Mr. Reluctant in Utah for my camping trip, my garbage disposal suddenly stopped working. Being alone and mechanically inept, I searched for friends to fix it in the few hours I had before my flight took off. No such luck. I then turned to the internet, a screwdriver, and trepidation. I hit the reset button repeatedly, turned off the breaker, removed particles of broken china and pieces of bok choy, fiddled with the chopper and the shaft, hit the reset button a few more times, switched on and off the breaker again, just in case, and cursed it. Still nothing. So I finished canning my brandied cherries and left. It sat, broken and pregnant with a moldering cherry, for the week.

As I've mentioned before, I have the best neighbor in the world. He's a commercial electrician by trade, a handyman and a (mostly) organic gardener. He came over yesterday and took a look at the disposal. Turns out the internet told me everything I needed to know about the mechanics of the thing, but not the electrical system. A small panel underneath the device revealed that one of the wires had been shaken loose. That was it. He rehooked the wires and we saved a hundred bucks.