Plumbing 101

Stories from 43 Cline Ave. S

Observations: water is at a standstill, with bits of food and soap suds floating within for nearly 24 hours. Drano has already been used; exceeded recommended dosage already.

Diagnosis: kitchen sink is SERIOUSLY clogged.

Tx: ---

Tonight, 43 cline witnessed the loving hearts of many brothers and sisters who came to our aide...

Vince and Sherry

- they came with their awesome collection of two tools (which is more than what our house holds), and proceeded to begin the task of figuring out where the clog was. (it was an "S" Trap - jess, albert and i learned this upon googling plumbing tools)
- "have you done this before" we ask them... "we've SEEN it before"...
- "uumm...." *shrug* better than us!

Results:
- they successfully emptied out our sink! eeeew. grossness.
- vince graciously offered to pour out our dirty water outside
- sherry and him concluded that the clog was in the 'loopy' part, and not in the straight section.
- they further recommended 'the snake'...cuz apparently, that's what they see on TV.

Jessica, Dorcas and I:
- tried to be our own heroes and proceeded to stick pieces of paper, PIPE CLEANERS, and other random things up the little hole on the bottom, to get at the grease over the 'loop'/'hook' part
- ask Jess for pictures
- we felt like losers, at least i did...
- apparently we're going to laugh hilariously at this experience when we're 30... okay jess, i admit that i'm finding it stupidly funny as i type this and understand why we might actually be cracking up at our absurd sitaution in the future!!

Results:
- no luck
- wasted a bunch of pipe cleaners
- a mess left on the floor

Albert Chang:
- dropped by to see if he could help
- tried to unscrew the pipe
- also agreed with Vince and Sherry that it was in the loop
- suggested us going to Cdn Tire to find ourselves a 'snake'
- offered his help to figure out how to use one, and unclog our sink
- reminded us that this really was no big deal
- reminded us that this is part of student life
- encouraged us to check out google and see if we could do it ourselves without calling for professional help - learning experience
- jess and i were not as eager to learn, very indecisive, and took an hour to figure out that we would call our landlord, and then the plumber tomorrow morning

Result: we need one of them 'snakes'

MCBC drop in:
So on this beautiful night, Darren, Kenneth, Jon Cheung, and Cheryl all decide to visit Mac - on a weekday night - and dropped by our lovely house with Jason, Jess Pong and Wendy. Rather a nice little visit....actually our life-saving visit.

Ken and Jon Cheung:
- told us that they were going to unclog our sink
- used Drano...
- failed...
- what about the plonger?
- "eeeew, we don't want toilet remnants in our kitchen sink..." (cuz you see, our toilet has clogging probs too - but mind you, this is an inherent problem in the drainage system because the former tenants had also told this to us...) This option had already been exhausted in our previous conversations throughout the day... if we were to do this, we would buy a new one... except none of us really had the time to go to take the bus to Cdn Tire in Dundas.. way too far....

AND THEN.. the GOLDEN MOMENT:

- Ken: what about putting a plastic bag on top?
- ...
- Ken proceeds to do his thing...
- less than two minutes later - he leaves the kitchen with the plonger, to go back upstairs...
- me thinking, "didn't work eh?"
- Ken: no it works.
- *blink blink*
- "what?!"
- Ken then brings me to the sink and turns on the tap full blast.. and the water swirls down quickly, beautiful... and is gone almost as soon as he turns off the tap.

- the feeling was incredible.
- i was so happy!
- everyone was like.. what? he just fixed it? just like that?
- "yeah, this happens at my place all the time, i'm just too lazy to call a plumber..."

WOW.

I'm so thankful that tonight, Ken decided to come to MAC, and that the MCBC crew decided to come to visit 43 Cline Ave. S.

And I'm also thankful for my housemates who beared with me all day in my crankiness and agitation of much too many things on my mind.

As Jess and I were cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, the MCBC folk said their good-byes, and we realized how terrible we were as hostesses during their brief visit.

But then Jason said something, "oh don't worry, your smiles right now are enough..."

I remember laughing... cuz it was a sweet comment.

He also said, "wow Lydia, you look like you're ... on something..."

I think after a full day of agitation, and just being really short with my own sister at home this past weekend, and my own housemates the last day and a half, and all the other things 'gone wrong', the smiles an hour ago were TRULY smiles from the depths of my heart. And is something that I haven't felt in a long time - the happiness that comes from the most simplest things; an unclogging of a kitchen sink stuck with so much crappy things built up in the past.

Funny how this unclogging thing is quite symbolic from the 'gutting' i'm going through - computer dying, plans thwarted (for something i'll blog about later), literally unclogging our kitchen...

And now, relief. and a genuine smile.

Thank you Lord for a lesson after a crazy day.

AMEN.