The joys of home ownership
Start with one somewhat fastidious eleven-year old girl, add a busy morning schedule, include a small bit of clumsiness and one really annoying habit, wait, stir.
The annoying habit is the somewhat fastidious eleven year old girl NOT flushing a just-used toilet. The clumsiness is dropping the toothpaste tube into said toilet. Now, the recent event being a #1 use, most normal people would simply pick up the toothpaste tube and toss it in the trash. It is important to note for those otherwise unfamiliar with the species; Eleven year old girls are nowhere normal. They yell for Mommy rather than stick their hand in pee. Mommy, being otherwise occupied at that time on a different floor of the house with encouraging the remaining members of the Thundering Herd(tm) through their morning routines, believes the toothpaste tube has been dropped and retrieved and that she should soon purchase a replacement.
Wait several hours. The somewhat fastidious eleven year old returns home from school and proceeds to use the toilet again.
Differently.
She does not flush the toilet, so the situation is not critical...yet. Disgusting, yes. Critical, no.
Later that evening, Mommy, going throught the final upstairs lights-out door close routine, goes and sees the light on in the eldest child's bathroom. She also notices the toilet is not flushed, but this is somewhat normal so she proceeds to push the lever. Water rises alarmingly, so she turns off the water before it over flows. It is at that point that all the events and participants come together in a supreme moment of cascading failures, leading to the words no husband ever wants to hear:
"Honey, I think we have a problem."
After much explanations and a big of yelling on my part, we proceed to troubleshoot the situation.
Reach into toilet (through brown water). No luck.
Have spouse reach into toilet. Still no luck.
Take wire and attemt to poke around and find toothpaste tube. Minor success, water level lowers somewhat. No toothpaste tube.
Pour more water in toilet. More water flows down. Now we are reaching through clear water. You take your improvements where you can get them.
After a bit more poking, we determine that the wire isn't helping but that we do know the tube is still in the toilet and not in the house plumbing. Again, all to the good. I decide that disassembly is the appropriate next step.
And that is how I ended up in my yard at 10:30 in the evening running water from the hose backwards through a toilet in an attempt to dislodge the afromentioned tube of toothpaste. Just as an observation, there is no such thing as a clean, used toilet until MUCH rinsing has occurred. Sticky things stick, especially when there is an obstructing object lodged in the works. 'nuff said.
Eventually the object gets to where I can reach in and extract it, thus leading to my neighbors wondering why I am shouting in triumph while standing in my socks, in my yard, at 10:45 PM, holding on to half a toilet and a truly disgusting toothpaste tube.
Back upstairs. (FYI, toilets are not light). Reassemble the device. I do need to acquire a large O-ring to go between the tank and the bowl, as those are not reusable fittings, but otherwise there is no permanent harm.
However, I do have rosy pink skin from what some people might feel is excessive, perhaps even obsessive, scrubbing in the shower immediately following the evening's activities.
Having been there, I would consider such scrubbing barely adequate.
The annoying habit is the somewhat fastidious eleven year old girl NOT flushing a just-used toilet. The clumsiness is dropping the toothpaste tube into said toilet. Now, the recent event being a #1 use, most normal people would simply pick up the toothpaste tube and toss it in the trash. It is important to note for those otherwise unfamiliar with the species; Eleven year old girls are nowhere normal. They yell for Mommy rather than stick their hand in pee. Mommy, being otherwise occupied at that time on a different floor of the house with encouraging the remaining members of the Thundering Herd(tm) through their morning routines, believes the toothpaste tube has been dropped and retrieved and that she should soon purchase a replacement.
Wait several hours. The somewhat fastidious eleven year old returns home from school and proceeds to use the toilet again.
Differently.
She does not flush the toilet, so the situation is not critical...yet. Disgusting, yes. Critical, no.
Later that evening, Mommy, going throught the final upstairs lights-out door close routine, goes and sees the light on in the eldest child's bathroom. She also notices the toilet is not flushed, but this is somewhat normal so she proceeds to push the lever. Water rises alarmingly, so she turns off the water before it over flows. It is at that point that all the events and participants come together in a supreme moment of cascading failures, leading to the words no husband ever wants to hear:
"Honey, I think we have a problem."
After much explanations and a big of yelling on my part, we proceed to troubleshoot the situation.
Reach into toilet (through brown water). No luck.
Have spouse reach into toilet. Still no luck.
Take wire and attemt to poke around and find toothpaste tube. Minor success, water level lowers somewhat. No toothpaste tube.
Pour more water in toilet. More water flows down. Now we are reaching through clear water. You take your improvements where you can get them.
After a bit more poking, we determine that the wire isn't helping but that we do know the tube is still in the toilet and not in the house plumbing. Again, all to the good. I decide that disassembly is the appropriate next step.
And that is how I ended up in my yard at 10:30 in the evening running water from the hose backwards through a toilet in an attempt to dislodge the afromentioned tube of toothpaste. Just as an observation, there is no such thing as a clean, used toilet until MUCH rinsing has occurred. Sticky things stick, especially when there is an obstructing object lodged in the works. 'nuff said.
Eventually the object gets to where I can reach in and extract it, thus leading to my neighbors wondering why I am shouting in triumph while standing in my socks, in my yard, at 10:45 PM, holding on to half a toilet and a truly disgusting toothpaste tube.
Back upstairs. (FYI, toilets are not light). Reassemble the device. I do need to acquire a large O-ring to go between the tank and the bowl, as those are not reusable fittings, but otherwise there is no permanent harm.
However, I do have rosy pink skin from what some people might feel is excessive, perhaps even obsessive, scrubbing in the shower immediately following the evening's activities.
Having been there, I would consider such scrubbing barely adequate.