I stuck my hand inside it and couldn't find anything that shouldn't be in there, like a fork.
I left it alone for a day or so and then felt around the outside with my hand to see if there was a reset switch. I pushed everything I could and when I tried to start it the motor just made a humming noise but wouldn't turn.
Today a friend at work told me a disposal has a reset switch on the bottom and a spot you can insert an allen wrench in to turn the motor to check if anything is interfering with the movement.
I got out a few tools and got ready. My main concern was having to move all the little things out from under the sink, make multiple trips to the hardware store and break my promise to not swear so much. While inspecting the disposal I noticed a penny was lodged between one of the blades and the edge of the tube.
Yesss!!! It was a fairly simple operation for me and my nurse Betsy to extract the culprit and now my disposal is humming along like new.
I have asked people using the kitchen to discontinue using the sink as a wishing well in the future.
That reminds me of a time when my daughters were little and there was something wrong with the cassette player in my pickup. I took it apart and found someone had been inserting pennies into the door the cassettes went in. I suppose to a 2 or 3 year old it looked like a machine that might accept tokens of some sort. That's not as bad as the little kid across the street who tried to put a Pop Tart in the cd drive of the computer. I guess he thought it looked like a toaster.
Anyway...here's what a garbage disposal does to a penny -
