It was three pm when I found myself hopelessly up to my ankles in soapy shit water from my neighbor upstairs and virtually up the creak with out a paddle. As I sat there trying to bail the water out with a cracked basin all I could think was man not again. Talk about history repeating itself when I was in a similar position just over a year ago. How did this happen?
On Wednesday night the water was draining in my kitchen sink very slowly. On further inspection the bathroom sinks were all backed up as well. Common sense recites that there must be a clog in the line. Thursday morning I get home from class at 9am and both bathroom sinks and kitchen sink were full of dirty refuse. I busted out my amateur plumbing skills, took off the grease trap under the sink and let the water out. Then after checking the obvious areas a clog could form I got out my snake and began feeding it down the pipes. I have a 1/2″ manual 25′ long snake. I got it three quarters of the way down the pipes and still no sign of the snag.
All the while my hands are black in sewage and the problem not rectified. After watching some videos and reading up on the topic of unclogging drains I get the hair brained idea that I should go out and get my hands on a snake I can attach to my drill making feeding down the pipes easier. The internet is an amazing source of information and a great tool, but a little knowledge in the wrongs hand can be a very dangerous thing. This was exactly the case for me.
Leaving my kitchen sink in pieces I ran out to the hardware store to buy this stupid contraption thinking the whole time how smart I was. Thirty bucks later I got home, snake and drill in hand. As I was attaching the two together I heard the noise of a shower. My upstairs neighbor had just got home from work and jumped in the shower. Initially I thought nothing of this. Five minutes later a heap of disgusting second hand shower water started pouring out of my piping all over my kitchen floor.
I thought I was in a bad episode of “I Love Lucy” or something as I attempted to catch the water in an oversized cereal bowl and dump it into a twenty gallon bucket. Meanwhile the whole time attempting to keep my two cats from drinking the dirty water. Then I grabbed this old basin that had been sitting outside my apartment for an undisclosed amount of time and ingeniously put it under the pipe to catch the water while I began to run the snake down the pipe.
While in the process of this I noticed my feet wet. Turns out that basin had a huge crack in the bottom allowing the water to escape as fast as it filled. It was at that point where I admitted defeat. My hands were black as night, my clothes covered in dirt and shit water. I put the sink back together and called the building maintenance department. They showed up about half an hour later, took one look at my beaten dirty self, laughed told me I should have called them in the first place and busted out an industrial snake. The clog ended up being 45 feet down the line meaning there was no way I was ever going to get to it anyway.
End result I wasted the entire day on a Don Quixote dragon slaying, neglecting a full schedule of ding repair and plenty of homework to finish. When the fiasco was finally competed and I gave the place and myself a sound cleaning (I still feel dirty as all hell and the amount of bacteria that most likely found its way into my body through the many open cuts on my hands is too alarming to think about. What I can say is that my hands have been a bit on the swollen side since. If I die from some crazy bacterial infection you will know why). All said and done I figured there was no better way to wash off the hassle of the day then a good surf, but as I was headed for the door I got a phone call from my boss over at Westmont. He wanted me to come in to work the night shift.
Thats eight hours of time and half baby, God bless overtime. How could I say no? I would have to be a fool. I traded a shitty grovel session at Mesa Lane for some Benjamins in my pocket. Car payments are not getting any cheaper and I got a phone call from my landlord today claiming they wanted to charge me for the plumbing work. I attempted to explain about the shared line with my neighbors and therefore it could not be traced back to me personally. This point may or may not have registered. Only time will tell my friends. Either way Im sure it will make a fun filled blog.
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