Sinks and insomnia

[rootofnewt]

Last week, on Wednesday, explodingcat called RotoRooter. This was after we'd tried all our various methods of unclogging the kitchen sink. RotoRooter Guy came out, did his thing, and informed boy that (a) the clog was caused by corrosion and small food particles and lint; (b) we couldn't use our garbage disposal; (c) we really need to *at* least replace the pipes which drain the sink and laundry machine. Needless to say, this was enough to make boy fret about the budget because pipes (well, plumbers) are expensive and he'd just paid RRG about three hundred bucks for something that would happen again and again until he got the pipes done.

Not two days later, the pipes acted up again--super slow draining kitchen sink. Doing dishes is no fun without a sink that drains or a garbage disposal.

Today, boy called RotoRooter to tell them how sad he was that their fix lasted only two days, heaving a huge sigh to ask them to come out and take his money again--surprise, they sent RRG out and told boy that he probably wouldn't have to pay.

RRG came out and showed boy a secret temporary fix (and it doesn't involve redirecting the dirty water outside into the garden, though that's not a bad idea) . . .

Do you remember Tim Allen's character on Home Improvement? He was based loosely on my father. Sure, they toned down his antics a bit so that it would be somewhat believable, but that's my dad, alright. It's kind of handy having superpowered lawnmowers and kitchen sink sprayers that can pressure wash the swingset from 50 feet away. Dad even bought and installed our garbage disposal.

Do you see where this is going?

Apparently, we have one of the most powerful disposal units. It's motor probably carries more horsepower than our lawnmower. RRG is a savvy guy and noticed this device and used it to great benefit.

Plug up the non-disposal side of the sink (we have a dual sink). Fill up the disposal side with lots of water. Hold down firmly on the other sink stopper. Turn on the disposal. The water has no outlet other than *down* through the blockage, so it builds up and then jets through. Or you get a black eye and dirty water on your ceiling. Fortunately, it was the former.

Anyhow, we have a working sink again for the time being.

So why does this matter? Well, I went to bed at 2am, hoping to get about six hours of sleep--boy has a final at nine am and I wanted to give him a ride so that I could still get to the farmer's market and buy his meat and eggs for the week. At 3:45, I rolled back out of bed. I'm certainly tired enough, but my nerves, muscles, and joints don't feel like shutting up. I can function (well, I'll be a bitch) on six hours. I cannot function on less than five. I can function on none (Heck, I didn't get up til 2pm) because I get punch-crazy after 20 hours and act like babyrapture when he hasn't had a nap.

So I wandered into the kitchen. Remember how we haven't had a well-functioning sink for a week? Well, we've not been starving. Two full sinkloads have been done since last Friday. Boy grazes constantly and I've been ravenous.

There were a lot of dishes. Most of our serving dishes, cookpots, and utensils, in fact. Even the blender.

Now, I can do dishes quite quickly. I can do two decent size meals' worth for four people in about 15 minutes with boy drying them.

It took me an hour. Without drying.

Now all the dishes are clean, except for the bowl of rancid dosa batter I removed from the fridge two days ago and forgot to put out on the compost heap. That's not getting opened until I can go out and dig into the heap. I might let boy do it. It's probably sentient. It can be his treat for finishing his class.

I, however, am done.

Comments

[floppy-hat.livejournal.com]

We had a similar plumbing experience when we bought our house. Lucky for us my mother in law has a friend who has a son who is a plumber and he does work for us on the side. (He charged us all of $50 to install our dishwasher.) We had to replace all the pipes from the kitchen, which included sawing a pipe in half to get it out. It was a pretty big pipe. We looked inside it and it contained a solid mass of corrosion and stuff, not fun. Anyway, I can totally relate and sympathize with your sink adventures, we went through that as well.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

The pipe which drains the kitchen sink is the bad one--the toilet, bathroom sink, tub, and washing machine don't back up at all. That's reassuring, actually. The kitchen drainpipe, however, is one of those big pipes (3-4" diameter) and it's about 40 feet long. *eep*