Life Lessons

[mrs_dm]

For some time now, I've been meaning to make a list of "Things that I've come to learn over my 4 decades of living that make life easier".  At least, I'll start it now and add to it as I get older;

1. Never put your eyeglasses somewhere where they can be a) sat on or b) stepped on.

2.  Whenever traveling (even if it's around the city), and you get up

Comments

[sassy_fae]

Very good rules to follow! 1 and 8 don't apply to me, but I follow 2 and 9 religiously! Freakin' telemarketers.

[mrs_dm]

Don't forget #6! That has helped me out twice now.

[sassy_fae]

Oh! Does it make a difference whether or not it's flushing at the time you plunge?

[mrs_dm]

Yes! When you flush, I think it opens a valve/hole in the bottom of the toilet and also the water in the tank drains into the toilet, so both of these create a positive pressure flow down the toilet.

Why don't they teach us practical stuff like this in high school instead of calculus?

[sassy_fae]

Ohh! Oh, ok! I'm now going to go and research how toilets work. This is how evenings get eaten up by the internet! At least it's educational :)

[sassy_fae]

Alright, so I took a crash course in the physics of toilets! Nope, no valve in the bottom, just a bend that acts as a siphon. I found a "How Stuff Works" video on it!
http://www.howstuffworks.com/toilet.htm

[mrs_dm]

Fascinating! I'll never take a shit for granted again. As Brian says, this really is a case of "immaculate elimination".

Actually, I looked through several plunging methods, and didn't see mine at all. I think because, theoretically, it has a high risk of overflow. I think I'll modify my advice to read;

"Try plunging while flushing, but only if the water level in the bowl is low (and the bowl capacity can handle another tank of water)"

[sassy_fae]

That's a good point! I've tried multiple flushing in the past thinking extra water pressure would help the process, but instead I flooded the bathroom! Thank goodness it was relatively clean water (I'd been flushing some stuff from the fridge, but one of the jars had larger pieces) but I still had a lot of cleaning and disinfecting to do!

It's definitely a neat process, and the video explained the physics in a way I'd never thought about. While I was watching the video, Alex heard it and asked me "What on earth are you watching?" In hindsight, I should have replied "You mean what the crap am I watching?" Ha! I kill me :)