The Plumber

The kitchen sink backed up this morning. I was cleaning out the refrigerator and putting a few leftovers down the gulper when all of a sudden the gulper refused to eat anymore. I hate when that happens! So I stopped and let the gulper rest for minute, but it still refused to eat anymore and wouldn't even swallow the stuff that was already in its gullet. I then tried plunging - no luck. Then I said, "Forget this" and went off to school for a few hours. When I got home the drain was still plugged (what? no drain fairies?) and I remembered that we had some of that Liquid Plumber stuff in the closet so I got that out. The bottle was half full and when I read the directions it said to pour half a bottle of stuff down the drain, so at some point someone must have tried this on some drain in our house. However, I couldn't remember using that so I had no idea how old the stuff was. Does Drano have an expiration date? Oh well, it was worth a shot so I poured the stuff down the drain and set the timer for 15 minutes. And 15 minutes later I still had a clogged drain, and now I think the drain was laughing at me! 

At this point, I decided I needed to call a plumber. If Jim had been home, he would have tried to fix it. However, I do remember something like this happening once before and the fix involved removing the garbage disposal, which put Jim in a less-than-happy mood! So, the decision to call a plumber was made, but which plumber? There are 1, 873 plumbers in the phone book. One phone call to Maw and I got her recommendation, someone they have used more than once and were happy with the work. So, I called at 3:10 PM and the guy was here at 3:30 PM! He worked for about 35 minutes and now my sink runs better than before! He did have to remove the garbage disposal and used some electric snake thing to clean out the pipe, clear down to the junction with the basement sink. 

I know that Jim is reading this somewhere in Belgium, saying, "How much is this going to cost me?" I say, "Don't worry about it!" Your time alone is worth what the bill will be and there was no cussing or sweating on your part. 

Tomorrow is a busy day. Drive to the NYS Fair in Syracuse in the morning, parent orientation at SU in the afternoon and the theater in the evening. I am going to see "Menopause, the Musical" at GEVA with my Women's Weekend friends! Watch the blog for the updates. 

I have to go watch water run down my kitchen drain!