Agitator Dogs

"You overfilled the washer!"
I hear this a lot, because it's true.
"And it's not working!"

Broken Agitator Dogs. Sweet band.

What? Like I said, I overfill the washer pretty much all of the time. My theory is that more clothes take up more space and that leaves less room for water. Less water used is a form of conservation, so I'm really saving the world and stuff. There's a rational thought process behind this, even if it is sort of idiotic. Broken though? That can't be right, I've never broken anything doing this, let me check. A quick look reveals that the agitator on the bottom is going back and forth like it's supposed to, but the one in the middle with the corkscrew thingy on it is just siting still. In fact, if I grab it I can spin it both ways. I know from staring at laundry swishing around with my kids, that the tall agitator in the middle only spins one way. Or it's supposed to anyway. It really is broken. Damn.
Once the laundry was done I started poking at things and eventually pried the cap off the upper agitator. I bunch of broken plastic chunks that used to be part of some sort of clutch mechanism met my gaze. Problem identified. I just need more of those..... thingies. Off to the internet with the model number of my washing machine to find an exploded view parts diagram. Just in case you're wondering, everything is on the internet. Everything. 10 minutes later and I've identified the shattered remnants as agitator dogs. That would be a great band name by the way, feel free to use it, I'll buy an album. Five minutes and $10 later and I've got a new pack of agitator dogs headed to my door. They arrive a week later, and half an hour after that, I put them in. One bolt and a bunch of plastic tabs that didn't really want to line up, no problem. Back together and my agitator works again. Awesome.
What's the moral of this story? Is it not to overload the washer? Of course not. It's that you can consistently do something moronic like overloading the washer if you have the skills to fix things when you break them. If you can do that, you too can end up a hyper masculine super fix it guy, loved and admired by your wife, even though you probably created the problem in the first place. The world is a just and kind place.