toilet troubles

[sirndipiti]

I've at last been able to outwit a toilet. Let me explain. Our main floor toilet began to leak/run a few months ago. This was pointed out to us by the water company when they noticed how our water bill was growing significantly. The thing is, the toilet was sneaky, it would seem fine, then when no one was listening, it would begin it's water wasting leak. Not to be outwitted by a mere sanitary appliance, I replaced the water-in valve. OK... all was good for a while, but the valve I bought had a safety lock which would prevent water loss if a malfunction developed in, say, the flush valve. (This has never happened with any toilet I've ever had... ever!) The problem with the new “safer” valve was that one had to hold the flush handle for a second or two when flushing, to disengage the safety lock. If not, the tank would not refill and the next flusher would have to wait for the tank to refill then depress the handle a second time to flush. Not a big deal except for the household member(s) who could not or for some reason did not wait the required 1-2 seconds. I finally (having much patience and utilizing proven teaching techniques) realized the new flush valve was just not working out for us. So I removed the safety lock mechanism. Ta-da, problem solved... one would think. The malicious toilet for some reason which I was never able to figure out (though I did have a theory) began to “think” the tank was not quite full enough every so often (between 5 and 30 minutes) and would allow another ounce or three to flow into the tank. Annoying to say the least, a pain in the ass even when one was not sitting on the toilet. Yesterday I revisited the plumbing department and bought a new “better” valve (with no troubling locking device) and so far... so far, things appear to be functioning the way they're s'possed to. We shall see. I can't help the somewhat unsettling feeling that the toilet is just playing with me as it plots it's next mis-adventure. Stay tuned.

Other than that, life goes on. It seems to be still winter in Michigan. The weather is just not co-operating as far as gardening or bike riding is concerned. The Harley just sit shivering in the garage. Sigh.