Three hours of processing time later, my brain has figured out enough of the various diagrams and schematics it has seen online to let me take apart the dryer and retrieve the screwdriver. Sweet, sweet victory is mine at last!

“Mom, I dropped a screwdriver into the lint trap!”

“What? Oh!”

Three hours of moving the dryer and vacuuming and unplugging and unscrewing and Internet research and reaching past fan blades into places where hands shouldn’t be and screwing and replugging and moving things back into their approximate starting places…

…no more screwdriver in the lint trap. Lots of sneezes.

I have smited many dust bunnies and perhaps one or two dust gorillas this afternoon.