You know today will be bringing a few challenges your way when you are taking your normal morning shower only to realize that a puddle is forming around your feet and ankles while you stand there covered in soap and shampoo. Nice.
The first thing you try is rinsing your foot around the top of the drain to see if a pesky hair wad is globbed up to block the drain. Alas, it was not hair ball causing the drama. Oh no happy campers! That would be way too easy.
Next, you hold off on the shower water figuring the combination of the rinse cycle on the washer and the shower is overwhelming the pipes. Nope, not that either.
Then, I tried to create a suction by blocking the drain with my foot to see if some kind of vacuum would form so that when I removed my foot it would miraculously drain all the soapy water away.
That didn't work either, dang it!
So I was left with the inescapable conclusion that happens every single spring... the tree roots in the front yard had once again invaded the pipes in search of fertilizing water from our wastewater pipe that leads to the sewer in our ditch. Woo hoo. I love it. In that way that I mean NOT.
Being a resourceful gal, I hunted down the Drano. Of course, I did wait until I was dressed to do so because frankly the very idea of prancing through the house on slippery tile while dripping wet and buck nekkid was just not something I was willing to countenance. Low they may be, but I do have my standards. Plus the blinds were up...
Finding the appropriate container in the cabinet beneath the sink in the main hallway bath, I poured a generous cupful of the miracle pipe cleaner down the shower drain and the rest of the bottle into the toilet. Now I am playing the waiting game until it is time to douse the drain with hot water in the hopes that the acid in the drain cleaner will eat up the blockage but not my pipes. It's like being in final Jeopardy, but with less glamorous prizes.
I'm not sure I hold out a lot of hope as the last time this happened I was forced to call the nice but expensive Roto-Rooter dude to come with his fancy truck and grind the blockage to bits. That was helpful but sure made the bank balance pitiful. Shouldn't someone be willing to accept payment rendered in sincere gratitude? Reckon not...
Is it possible to pray over your drains? I don't say that in jest as we are told to cry over our families, our flocks, our herds and to cry against the devil. While I am not claiming wastewater pipes as cattle or flocks of any kind, I would certainly say that there is something devilish in having a clog that makes you feel like you are going to drown in soapy water. For the record, I am not a fan of drowning. Plus the epitaph would be most unflattering... "Suds to death in what was evidently the prime of her life".
Hmm. I shall have to ponder this sudsy conundrum.
In the meantime, liquid chores are waiting for resolution of the problem before being pursued. I can't imagine what kind of backup another load of laundry would bring to my drain system! And I live in fear of a toilet overflow - mostly because they are plain gross and cleaning them up is no picnic. That and I am secretly afraid of the toilet plunger...
So I wait on the magic promised on every bottle of Drano. That it will fulfill the intent of its inventors and rid me of the sinister clog that has rendered my day at a standstill until such time as the clog either dissolves through the might of chemical intervention or it is eaten up by the invading and hungry tree roots that sneak their tendrils through and into my pipes.
It does make one reconsider the idea of an open sewer system but certainly not the stench from one. At least in an open system you can see what the problem is and rectify it speedily. But the overpowering scent would be an eye watering, nose burning experience indeed. I do not envy the Romans on that account. Ew!
I well remember the halcyon days of youth as we would drive by the "poop factory" where our city's modern municipal water supply was allegedly cleaned. They had settling ponds where the solid materials would literally settle out into concrete holding areas and the water would be drained out and chemically cleaned and reinserted into the drinking supply. It was a nasty smelling place. Just what they did with that sewage slime and chunks was beyond my kin. I am convinced they just chucked it into the river. After a school tour of the facility, I was almost ready to give up drinking water entirely until Momma pointed out that the milk I was drinking was from cows that pee and poop in their drinking water all the time. Plus she mentioned something about dying from lack of water that sort of derailed my erstwhile plans of becoming an H20 teetotaler. Oh the price we pay for knowledge!
Now I understand fully that there are challenges in every life. I am not being made to chop wood every day, I seldom haul water and it has been decades since I bathed in a washtub on the back porch at my grandparents house in Sylacauga. I even doubt that the back porch (or the house for that matter!) is still there anyway.
But dang it, when you step into the bath in an allegedly modern home with connections to that great sanitary sewer system lauded in story and song (okay, so I exaggerate), you don't expect to be ankle deep in sudsy water that should have just drained away. Yes, I am spoiled. Spoiled rotten.
At any rate, it is time to make some hot water to pour down the offending drain and see what happens. I'm just hoping to see some positive movement. If not, don't be surprised to see me, my slippers, my robe, my towels and my Alabama elephant loofah ringing your doorbell. I will be conducting an informal test of YOUR water system's drain capabilities. And if it is satisfactory, I may well be a guest each morning for a quick rinse until this temporary crisis is over.
Happy towels to you until we rinse again!
P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, The Drano and hot water treatment worked! Yeah me!
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