Since I am stuck inside on Sunday due to the incredible heat outside and the football games on television inside, I aim to be productive. I start cleaning out my files. I decide to get rid of the files for my old cars (who cares if spark plugs were changed in a car I don't own anymore), taxes older than ten years, paperwork from old loans, and a whole bunch of medical receipts from ages ago.
I don't even get to my writing files, and I already have a pile of recyclable papers that is twelve inches thick. Today is a good day to run the shredder because no one else is home. Sometimes when I turn the shredder on, it affects the cable reception and pixelates the television screens, so the only person being bothered by the shredder today is I.
I start running the machine, and eventually it stops working. This is not the first shredder I've killed, so I know the drill. First thing to check is the paper receptacle. Yes, it's full; problem solved. I continue shredding, emptying every so often as I go.
But, it doesn't take long for me to jam the gears for real. I unplug the machine, grab the large tweezers, clear several shreds of paper, and then I am back in business. This happens twice more before I finally unplug, check the gears, and find ...
Nothing.
There is no jam. I play with the gears, anyway, because every time I plug it back in and turn it on, it just sits there with the light on but no action. After about ten minutes of this, I declare the shredder DEAD, put the rest of the papers aside, and whistle taps. The top of the shredder goes to the trash; the bottom will become another trash can somewhere around the house.
Oh, well. Guess that means I can stop going through the files. Recycling goes out Tuesday, and I doubt I'm going to run out and buy shredder #3 before then. I'll have another two weeks before the recycling company picks up again. I should be good to go within two weeks..
Until then, FOOTBALL! Life is good, and the television picture isn't pixelating anymore.
