The crazy time it rained washers
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- January 21, 2025
- 374
Many things strike terror in homeowners’ hearts, and finding loose washers lying around is way up on the terror-striking list.
After a day of house cleaning, Taller Half and I were enjoying a quiet evening at home relaxing and watching television. Our house seemed contented and calm and happy to be freshly scrubbed, vacuumed and dusted.
The peaceful calm was then shattered with the discovery of little round metal things lying on the rug. Taller Half looked down, saw them and said quietly, “The washers are loose.”
We were perplexed, to say the least. There on the freshly vacuumed rug were several washers. Where had they come from? How did they get there? The possibilities were frightening. Something in our house had shed washers; something in our house was getting ready to fall apart.
Being experienced homeowners, we checked all plumbing, appliances, fixtures and furniture for signs of missing washers. All were intact. Our house seemed to be in good shape with no major complaints.
As we continued to explore, more washers appeared. Two or three more were found on the rug, another in the kitchen and yet another in our bedroom. Our house was littered with loose washers — and we didn’t know why.
Crazy thoughts ran through our minds, not the least of which was something giving the appearance of being intact but was only an accidental nudge away from total collapse.
On the verge of complete insanity, we were saved by a visit from our son. He spied a washer on the floor, picked it up and placed it very carefully back on the blade of the ceiling fan. “They make great balancing weights for fans,” he said.
Ah ha! Mystery solved. Taller Half then educated our male child on the benefits of magnetized fan blade balancers.