Winter has finally come to Utah. It's just as well. I was getting burned out of keeping up with the yard, and now, I can look forward to not having to do that kind of stuff until spring. I got the Accord finished with the safety and emissions inspection--it had failed because the bracket that holds the battery in had broken. Anyway, I replaced that today. I got a tool in the mail that's supposed to help with clearing obstructions from toilets. In our basement, where our daughter, Rebecca and her family live, the toilet is having issues. I had plunged it last week and got a toothbrush out, but then found out that there might be more toothbrushes and whatever else in there and that it was still sluggish. Rather than pull the toilet to clear it, I got online and looked for easier solutions. Anyway, I found out about the toilet auger that a bunch of people swear works well, then I checked the video that's mentioned in the comment section. In case you ever need to know this, here it is.
I put Rebecca's husband, Justin on the task this morning. I'm anxious to see how it went.
Ann and I are going to try and finish up our Christmas shopping for the kids and grandkids sometime today. We like to get it done early, so we don't have to worry about it. I still have a bunch to do for Ann, but what do you expect? Her birthday is December 12, then there's Christmas, and on December 30th, our anniversary. If I could figure out how to get Mother's Day and Valentine's Day into December, I would and then I could have the whole shebang over for the year.
On the writing front, I think I'm going to find some agents to whom I can submit my Christmas poem entitled The Cowboy's Mile: A Christmas Story. I feel that it would be easier to try and explain my idea for the poem with illustrations to an agent rather than to a publishing company. It's a lengthy poem--about two to three type written pages of verse--and it would lend itself well to a format with a stanza or two on a page with an illustration to go with it. I'm fairly certain both children and adults would like this story--I just need to find a way to get it published. I'm also confident that it would be well-received among the Christian book market, so maybe that's the kind of agent I need to approach.
As for gratitude today, I'm grateful I didn't ever stay out in the rain long enough to get soaking wet. It might have caused trouble with clothes clinging and all of that. Okay, I know, that sounds like a weird thing to be grateful for, but I have my reasons. And I am trying to think of things I don't normally think of for which to be grateful. Normally I don't mind getting soaking wet, especially when it's very hot. But this year, it seemed kind of like, well, it didn't ever really get hot enough to need that cool down effect, another thing for which I'm grateful. And, it's just plain hard to get out of the wet clothing. I'm thankful I never got that wet and that all my excursions this year were relatively tame. Well most of them. That's a story for another time.
Showing posts with label plumbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plumbing. Show all posts
Monday, November 16, 2015
Friday, November 06, 2015
Life's trials stink
Two days ago I got a call from my daughter (who with her family, lives in our basement) while I was at work.
"There's water everywhere and it's coming from the floor drain in the basement. Sewage has backed up into the bathtub. What should I do?
I have used up all my leave time for the year. I couldn't go home to assess the situation myself. "Call a plumber," I said. "Go with whichever one can get there first".
Hoping that she could handle the situation from there, I worked the last three hours until quitting time, and then went straight home, abandoning my plans for a workout at my local gym.
When I finally got to take a look at things, they seemed rather dire. The plumber would not be there for a couple of hours, so I set about using the shop vac to suck up water. I knew I wouldn't be able to dump it until the plumber arrived and fixed things.
When the plumber got there, he got the drains clear, but emphasized a problem I already knew we had...that somewhere in the main line going out to the street there's a "belly" in the line. This can lead and has already led to multiple backing up problems. He left and I got back to work, mopping, cleaning tubs. Trying to deal with another problem that the plumber had found, which was that the basement toilet was not working properly and that there was likely something lodged within. I was trying to dump shop vac water into it and flush it down, but it didn't want to go down. Only by adding additional water after pushing the handle would the thing go all the way down, but eventually even that stopped. I thought I'd be calling the plumber back the next day to pull the toilet.
However, in the process of trying to plunge the water down, the object that was blocking things actually became dislodged and floated partway into the bowl, I could see the brush end of a toothbrush. I plunged my ungloved hand into the tank and grabbed it. It didn't want to come, but I insisted. Once I got that out and washed my hands, I tried flushing the toilet again. It worked! Rebecca had been carrying water up the 12 steps all day to dump it somewhere, and was all done in, so I washed all the sopping towels, semi-cleaned the toilet, sprayed out the tub (it would still need a good scrubbing), sucked up the remaining water off the floor, and after a long, hot shower, called it a night.
So, this year we've had the freezer go out, the roof replaced, and a flood in the basement. Things come in threes, as a friend reminded me, and we've had our three. No more necessary this year! I think I will schedule a plumber from now on every six months to run a cable through the lines, and if that doesn't work, well, I guess we'll have to take more drastic measures. One of the neighbors said that the same thing happened to them and the guy who fixed theirs said that the houses in the neighborhood had settled since they'd been built and the lines going out to the street have virtually no downhill gradient. Good to know...
Yeah, I'm fairly certain that we'll be moving again. I was fairly certain before, so now I'm even more so. I'm just glad that life's adventures don't all involve cleaning up sewage.
"There's water everywhere and it's coming from the floor drain in the basement. Sewage has backed up into the bathtub. What should I do?
I have used up all my leave time for the year. I couldn't go home to assess the situation myself. "Call a plumber," I said. "Go with whichever one can get there first".
Hoping that she could handle the situation from there, I worked the last three hours until quitting time, and then went straight home, abandoning my plans for a workout at my local gym.
When I finally got to take a look at things, they seemed rather dire. The plumber would not be there for a couple of hours, so I set about using the shop vac to suck up water. I knew I wouldn't be able to dump it until the plumber arrived and fixed things.
When the plumber got there, he got the drains clear, but emphasized a problem I already knew we had...that somewhere in the main line going out to the street there's a "belly" in the line. This can lead and has already led to multiple backing up problems. He left and I got back to work, mopping, cleaning tubs. Trying to deal with another problem that the plumber had found, which was that the basement toilet was not working properly and that there was likely something lodged within. I was trying to dump shop vac water into it and flush it down, but it didn't want to go down. Only by adding additional water after pushing the handle would the thing go all the way down, but eventually even that stopped. I thought I'd be calling the plumber back the next day to pull the toilet.
However, in the process of trying to plunge the water down, the object that was blocking things actually became dislodged and floated partway into the bowl, I could see the brush end of a toothbrush. I plunged my ungloved hand into the tank and grabbed it. It didn't want to come, but I insisted. Once I got that out and washed my hands, I tried flushing the toilet again. It worked! Rebecca had been carrying water up the 12 steps all day to dump it somewhere, and was all done in, so I washed all the sopping towels, semi-cleaned the toilet, sprayed out the tub (it would still need a good scrubbing), sucked up the remaining water off the floor, and after a long, hot shower, called it a night.
So, this year we've had the freezer go out, the roof replaced, and a flood in the basement. Things come in threes, as a friend reminded me, and we've had our three. No more necessary this year! I think I will schedule a plumber from now on every six months to run a cable through the lines, and if that doesn't work, well, I guess we'll have to take more drastic measures. One of the neighbors said that the same thing happened to them and the guy who fixed theirs said that the houses in the neighborhood had settled since they'd been built and the lines going out to the street have virtually no downhill gradient. Good to know...
Yeah, I'm fairly certain that we'll be moving again. I was fairly certain before, so now I'm even more so. I'm just glad that life's adventures don't all involve cleaning up sewage.
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