The Watershow

I love when things on me break down or flow over. Timing is never better. It always seems that when things like this happens I've also got a million other things I'm doing at the same time. Today was no exception, though it started last night.

While preparing dinner last night my sink lovingly clogged up and flowed over. Which was grand because I had to put dinner on hold to run out and get some roto-rooter stuff (whatever happened to Draino, it wasn't even on the shelves). Of course I went to walmart (bad idea), and of course Walmart was packed (I hate packed stores). Waiting in the express lane, thought about the dinner I had left on the stove and wanted to go home with urgency. That feeling probably wasn't a good idea, since anytime I feel urgent about anything things become more sluggish. The lady infront of my dropped her case of Frapacinos (which should be a crime, except it was mocha flavored, not coffee flavored). So they closed off the 2 surrounding checkout lanes. This left me along with everyone else infront of and behind me to move to another register and wait even longer. The checkout lane I then went to had a mechanical problem just as I put the roto-rooter down to be scanned, so I had to again change checkout lanes.

I finally made it home after fighting traffic, and dinner was cold and now stuck to the pan. So I scraped what I could out and we ate.

Putting the dishes aside and stacking them in the pots and pans (since I could not use my sink and therefore my dishwasher), HB began to plung the sink. It was unfortunate that I had my back to the sink because I missed a spectacular geyser! Rather than being able to see it coming and dodging to enjoy the show while remaining dry, my backside got the brunt of it.

Plunging did not work, so I then resorted to pooring the roto-rooter into the sink. 2 hours goes by and I comment on how it was not working at all. HB then made an observation and informed me that it would probably work best if I had removed the stoppers. With that, the stoppers were removed and we left it to work over night.

During the morning rush to get the kids ready for school, I was pleased that the sink was now empty. As i got ready to wash the dishes from the night before, the sink again clogged up and flowed over. I sigh and let it be, and went on to clear up breakfast (yay, more dishes). Of course the morning wouldn't have been complete with my lovely toddler throwing her food around as if it were confetti.

After coming home from taking my two older daughters to school, I decided I would conquer the flooding sink, I felt that victory was on my side. With pipe wrench in hand, towels laying along the floor and under the sink with a bowl (a bucket would not have fit under the piping) to catch whatever came leaking out, I felt prepared.

I'm not sure what happened, but as I slowly began to loosen the joints, water went everywhere, like an angry river released from a dam. My bowl did not collect the water as it was shooting upward (defying gravity) and then bouncing off the top of that cabinet outwards at me, drenching me head to toe and flooding the kitchen floor. On a positive note, it stayed dry under the sink. The pipe wasn't even off yet, it was just loosened, and the water was coming out with such force that I couldn't even pretend to tighten it back up.

Covered in nasty built up water, I evaluated my wet kitchen, and decided it best to clean up and change my clothes. After that I figured that there wasn't anymore water that could come out of the pipes, so I then proceeded to take them all apart. Sadly, the clog must be beyond my reach as I didn't find a clog in the pipes. Realizing I would need a snake, but knowing that I didn't have one, I picked up the only thing I knew would be my last chance as coming out the victor of this battle....the phone book. It was aparent to me then that I am a bad plumber, which was humbling because I'm very much a do-it-yourself type of person...that and I'm a penny pincher.