The Aerie

Rats!

Earlier this week I had occasion to use the downstairs, main floor shower for the first time in a long time. Oddly enough, the water drained very very slowly... os of course this meant a clog was building up in the drain. Having been through this drill before, I knew what was next: a day spent unclogging the pipe.

The bathtub drain is original 1943 iron pipe, and it had been my hope that the tub would not clog for a couple more years. Sometime in 2008 we'll probably completely tear out and replace the bathroom, including the piping. But the tub was actually overdue to clog again - it had been probably seven years since the last one - so it didn't surprise me when this morning the tub failed to drain at all.

I headed downstairs before church to check out the situation but didn't get far: that's because when I got to my workroom I found that somebody - somebody feline probably - had knocked over my big box of fluorescent bulbs. Note to self: store bulbs down from now on. Alberti's Droppage Principle: things can't fall if they're already on the floor.
Instead of unclogging the pipes, I cleaned up hazardous waste - all the while trying to keep the cat out of the shards of broken glass.

Instead it was after church when I opened up the piping in the basement and snaked out the line. It went surprisingly quickly and easily, I guess because it was the third time. Despite being the easiest and most straightforward un-clogging I've done, it still took all afternoon. Nevertheless by four thirty I had removed two giant hair-wads from the drainpipe, both of which looked like giant black rats.

That accomplished I cleaned up, everything except for the smell from my skin. Scrub as I might my fingers still smell like I've spent the day doing handstands in the sewer.

So the shattered bulb was cleaned up, the tub was unclogged... time to rest, right? No! Because I still had to dig out my car from yesterday's snowstorm. I could do it this afternoon, or I could try to do it at 7:00 a.m tomorrow, before work. I think not.

So I trudged out and started digging. Forty minutes later the car was extracted from the icy crypt which the plow had constructed. Hopefully I ought to be able to simply pull out and drive away tomorrow morning. Unless the plow goes by again and seals it back in.

So dinner is done, the car is ready, the tub is draining, it's eight thirty and I'm typing while I liveblog the Oscars with the crowd on Firedoglake. And that's the weekend!

Posted by Albatross at February 25, 2007 7:10 PM | TrackBack