Drying out pencils

I fold laundry right out of the dryer.  I loathe heaping it onto the dining room table or a couch for reasons that I won't get into here.  But certain people have done that for me, thus determining what my immediate next task needs to be instead of what I had planned to do.  

Ok - I guess I did get into it a little...

But anyway, back to the dryer.  Leon "helps" me at times, handing me one piece at a time, sometimes too quickly, sometimes I have to reach around him to grab SOMETHING to fold.  

I asked him if there was anything else and he said, "Nope, but there is a pencil stuck."  WHA?

And he was right.  There was a wooden pencil stuck in the venting holes in the back of the dryer.  I had to almost climb in to wrestle with it and finally I got it but the thing broke in half and the other half went somewhere down into the vent.  oops...

Who had a pencil in their clothes??!!!! And how did I miss it????!

I put the next wet batch in and turned it on and all was well.  So OKAY!

I posted this photo for no other reason than because I won't show you a photo of my laundry room.

I think it's a dinosaur.

The next morning, I moved the batches ahead and when I turned on the dryer, it started making a raucous sound, like fingernails on a blackboard, only worse and louder.  I turned it off quick!

For the next 2 hours, I pondered on the problem as I worked at my desk.  I wasn't quite sure where that perfect tool to take off the back of the dryer is.  I've done it before...  

So by my morning break, I got to thinking that a pencil wears down... right??  

How much raucous-ness could the people in the house handle??

Turns out Leon's ears are sensitive.  WHO KNEW?!  He has no clue how sensitive mine are when he screams through the house...  Even though I tell him.  His voice doesn't bother himself at all!

He stood in the hall with his hands on his ears screaming to shut it off as I turned on the dryer and listened to the scratching screech for all of 15 seconds, when suddenly the screeching stopped.

WOOHOO!!  The dryer is FIXED!!!