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Mom is so good; she fixed her printer like new.

She had already taken off all of the removable parts, so all she had to do was completely clean out her printer. Remember, I told you that a mouse got inside it and chewed up a lot of paper. Also, that mom had found a ballpoint pen way in the back and under where the paper tray is supposed to stay. Oh yeah, the half-eaten M & M mom found in the front part of her printer.

Well, mom sure has a lot of patience. She carefully took out the largest of the pieces with her fingers, so that wasn’t so hard, except when one piece was stuck under the platen. It took almost five whole minutes to work it loose, but she did it. Next, came the hard part; the smaller pieces.

First, mom got her desktop vacuum and got all the pieces she could reach with the vacuum–it doesn’t have a hose, you know. Then, mom tried a regular knife from the kitchen to loosen and move the stubborn pieces of paper closer to the front of the printer so she could reach them. That maneuver didn’t work so well. A steak knife with a serrated edge and with a very sharp point was next. That maneuver didn’t work either. So, next came the single chop stick. I figured she had lost her mind. If something sharp and pointy didn’t work, why would mom think that a round blunt-ended stick would work. Who knows what humans think sometimes?

She was at the computer, and I was lying by her feet as usual. All at once, mom turned around and yelled (not too loud) “It works.” I really thought she had lost her mind. I couldn’t see or understand how something that primitive could work–but, then I’m just a follower. But, mom never gives up. If it hadn’t worked, she would have found something else that might have, and so on until she solved the problem. There is only one thing I haven’t told you that mom did to make that round and blunt-ended stick efficient (which allowed her to complete her task).

And the secret is–she wet (very lightly) the narrower end of that stick. It stuck to the smallest pieces of paper, and the fragments came right out of her printer without falling off of it.