After my pacemaker operation, I returned home to my apartment, but I also had a knee brace on my right leg because I had fallen, when I passed out, due to low blood pressure. For a short time, I could not drive myself and was home bound. Both Russ & Deborah Savage, and Jeff & Robin Mitchell stepped in to help me greatly during this time, when I was so helpless.

The Savages bought me a Lasko 16 inch oscillating standing fan because my apartment was uncomfortably warm, even with air conditioning. *I just saw a video of how to put together one of these fans.

Here’s the thing. The operation was in 2019, and I have run the fan pretty constantly during the night by my bed. At some point I realized that the fan wasn’t circulating air very well, and I noted that the grating, both front and back had become clogged with lint & dust. But, as I often do, I became used to the fan not performing its function, except for that comforting sound as it swept back and forth.

Until today, this afternoon. I went into my bedroom and sat on my bed in front of the fan. I took an eyelet screw, that was on top of my night stand and started to try to remove the lint & dust. This would have been an extremely long and almost useless process.

I turned the fan in a different angle toward my night light, which the Savages also bought for me, during my time of helplessness. I was now able to see that the fan was manufactured by Lasko. I got online and searched for this fan, and see it is still advertised by WalMart for about $29.

I was looking for the suggested way to clean the fan, but instead found YouTube videos on how to put the fan together. But, this was enough to find that I could simply press the edges of the two fan grates and they would disconnect. Sure enough pressing around the edges popped the two pieces apart. Viola!

From the video, I knew the various components and how they were put together, and so I now also had a good idea of how to reverse the process. A few missteps, but nothing broken, and I had the two grates apart, and the fan blade assembly off. I took all three into my bathroom and turned on the shower and quickly the dust & lint was washed into the tub. I dried each part off with a paper towel.

I put the cleaned pieces back together and started the fan motor again. Oh my… I once again had a working oscillating fan. I’m not sure what I will do with all the fresh air blowing across my body, from foot to head, to foot to head… ad infinitum, tonight. And, as my mother reacted to getting new glasses and the world once again being opened to her. What did I ask her? Well, you had the money, why didn’t you buy new glasses long before now?

Why didn’t you clean the fan a long time ago, Bill?