3/29/2004 08:29:15 AM|||Mike|||Monday.
Very much so.
Both kitchen sink drains stopped last night, so I got up early to clear them. Had to unscrew part of the plumbing. The aroma was intense. And not in a good way. The pipe wasn't just clogged somewhere down the way, it was full. So the dishwater didn't even drip out the part I opened. Got out the snake, used it to poke out some crud, and there was a small rush of, well,I guess it was water-based and the vapor was undoubtedly organic. Ran the snake deep into the system, pulled out quite a lot of crud. Ran water into the garbage disposal - it didn't come through. Ran water through the other sink - it did. This is bad, because the pipes are in kind of a peace-sign arrangement (without the circle) and this means that the remaining clog is between the garbage disposal and the junction. I can't make the snake turn up the disposal drain. It would be like turning off on an on-ramp on an Interstate. I'll have to take apart lots of stuff. Well, I'll get one side going now so we have a working, if not entirely efficient, kitchen today. I'll get the other after work. So I'm cleaning the pipe out - no use giving the next clog a head start - and I notice more crud coming in. The disposer side clog is oozing out. Yay. Poke around some more with the snake, the clog oozes out enough for the water to get through. Run a bunch of water, dump the bucket (I had a bucket under the open pipe, otherwise this would have been very ugly) clean up the threads and put the plumbing back together. Go outside and hose off the tools. Decide keeping the snake in the carboard box it came in is icky - I rinse it after use, but it never gets really clean and cardboard holds crud - so I store it in the bucket.
Wash up, I've got 7 minutes to make coffee and have a bowl of Marshmallow Matees with the grandson (he's just turned two) before heading out.
OK, just a little late. On my way out the door. Wife calls out that the dog has diarhea and she's feeling too dizzy to clean up. So back I go, fire up the carpet steamer, take care of the situation. Not just a little late anymore. Walk the dog again. Ask eldest daughter to up the carpet steamer away for me. Wash up, grab coffee, hit the road. The 894 bypass is moving pretty well for almost 8, it's usualy pretty slow this time of day, I often use city streets to get to the 45. The 45 connects the dull Southwest suburbs (mostly retired blue-collar, particularly fitting for my own, which is named after a company that moved to Mexico. Don't get me wrong - I love the place.) where I live to the decaying and half deserted Northwest corner of The City where I work. Thus, it never has much traffic on it, and the traffic reports rarely mention it. Except this morning. The traffic reports, as usual, don't mention it. But it's a parking lot. Due to character of the area where the office is, the doors are locked and hardly anybody has a key, we have to knock to get in. My boss opens the door for me.
So I've had a long day when I walk in the office door.|||108058269668907567|||