Thursday, April 22, 2010

Stephanie's Plumbing Lesson

Last week, my nearly constant vomiting from that whatever-it-is bug that I picked up resulted in a clogged toilet, which I was clearly in no condition to deal with.  Schoolwork and other distractions soon chased the matter from my mind.  Then this morning, to my consternation, my other toilet got clogged as well.  Thus, I was left in the unappealing situation of having two clogged toilets and no plunger.  What was a single girl to do?

Obviously, there was no way that I was going to call a plumber, or anything drastic like that.  I have never actually used a plunger, and thus was rather reluctant to buy one and try to figure the thing out.  Instead, I looked online for some credible solutions.  I struck gold!

Apparently, if you pour a bunch of Dawn dishsoap into the toilet, let it set, and then pour a pot of boiling water down the toilet, it actually gets the clog out.  It took a few pots of boiling water to do it, but now both toilets are in excellent working order, and smell rather nice as well.

Since I have a low workload this week, I opted to do some needed housekeeping and random household tasks today after dealing with the toilet issue.  One task in particular that I have been meaning to do is to clean out Jasper's toy box.  He has literally loved some of his toys to death, so I wanted to weed out those that were in poor condition and dispose of them.  Jasper did not appreciate my efforts in the least.  He followed me anxiously to the kitchen when I had selected the toys that would be thrown out, and watched in horror as I threw them into the trash.  For the next half hour, he sat in front of the cabinet where I keep the wastebasket, mournfully staring at it and whimpering pitiably.  I remained firm, and eventually he gave up on trying to "rescue" those toys.  The matter was not entirely over for him, however.

The next thing I knew, Jasper began collecting his favorite toys, one at a time, from the toy box and hiding them in various locations throughout the apartment.  Apparently he is now gravely concerned for the safety of his remaining toys, and is determined to keep me from finding them.  An hour later, the toy box is now half empty and the "toy guardian" is fast asleep on the couch, worn out from his self-appointed mission to protect his toys from his evil owner.

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"Passage—immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins! Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawsers—haul out—shake out every sail!
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
Have we not grovell’d here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
Have we not darken’d and dazed ourselves with books long enough?

Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!
O farther, farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!"

~Walt Whitman, "Passage to India"