Adventures in plumbing, or birth control for toilets

Thursday morning was not the best morning for me. I woke up 15 minutes late, which normally would not be a horrible thing, but I had Court in Wheaton, so I really needed to hustle.

Well, since my house is 80 years old, the plumbing is not the best and it takes some time for the hot water in the shower to actually arrive in the shower. So as I'm trying to do everything as fast as could be, I start the shower and brush my teeth at the same time. But it quickly becomes apparent that I need to relieve myself before I take a shower. Which I do, but not wanting to disrupt the delicate hot/cold water balance in the shower, I don't flush. I figure that I'll flush after the shower.

So I hop in the shower and clean up. As I get out, I flush the toilet and reach for my towel. But in reaching for my towel, I knock a disposable plastic cup from the sink. The cup, guided by some unseen and diabolical force lands right in the toilet bowl and races down the drain. Where it becomes logged, refusing to move. The cup, is just the right size to act as a diaphram on my toilet. It fit just out of reach, and it would not let the water out. I try the plunger in vain.

Meanwhile, I'm late to court, my wife and kids are not up and my upstairs toilet is refusing to cooperate. So, I wake up Sarah and explain that she and Nick have to use the toilet downstairs as I rush out the door. So I rented a toilet auger this afternoon to try and bust up the cup. And when that didn't work, I had to remove the toilet, shove the auger up the back end and reseal the toilet. Three things I have never done before.

But somehow it all worked out in the end. This of course is a great assumption. But the toilet works for now. If only I could get the kitchen sink fixed...