Day 303...Plumbing issues at 3AM..
Jan. 16th, 2021 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatAt 3am this morning - I went to the bathroom, only discover cold water on the floor and my toilet overflowing. I bailed the water out with a pot (it was clear and cold not shitty or gross).
Tried plunging didn't work. (Found out later from super's wife that I had the wrong plunger...apparently a small one with a wooden handle and strong plastic rim, that you can press down flat - for maximum suction works best. Mine - which she'd ironically given me over three years ago...didn't work.)
Tried flushing - made it worse.
Tried bailing the water and putting it in the tank. Worked for a little while then not at all.
Folks I was bailing ice cold water out of my toilet until 5 am in the morning. I finally, FINALLY, figured out how to get the flap in the tank to press flat. Once that happened the bowl stopped filling up and overflowing.
Went to the bathroom in a bucket. Used trash bags inside it. And fretted that I'd have to go without a toilet in the middle of a pandemic. Then tried to go back to bed. I slepte for maybe an hour. Got up at 7 am, and the super's wife came at 7:30 with the plunger.
Super's wife: Let me try the plunger first. (Brandishing a small wooden plunger with a red cap.)
Me: I already did that.
Super's wife: Let's see what you used. (Looks at the big black plunger she'd given me about three years ago.) Oh that's useless. Piece of crap. It won't collapse down. You have to make it collasp for it to work. See? My husband does it all wrong too. I keep showing him.
[Five minutes later]
See? It worked. Flushes now. No issues.
I thank her profusely. I had to mop up my floor at 3 AM, so my bath mat, a towel and shower towel mat are all sopping wet. I hung them to dry, and then in the hamper. At 8 am, I cleaned my bathroom floor thorougly, along with the tub, and the toilet. I ate, I listened to Barack Obama read his book, I watched Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist ( which I like, oddly, better this year than last year - less jarring), and tried to take a nap.
After a half hour, Mother woke me up from the nap.
She explained what was so funny about the John Henson property in upstate New York (which you may or may not recall I posted about in the last post?). In 2019, sis-in-law went to Turkey to do a speech on textiles. One of the Turkish Ogliarchs called or emailed her this week - asking if she would check out some property for him in upstate New York. The realtor who is helping her check it out - is her former hair dresser in the city. And the property is the John Henson property. Mother found this whole thing to be hilarious of course. It is, but I'm also used to sis-in-law. So was unfazed.
Mother got the day off from PT, but her butt her hurt from sitting all day long in her wheel chair. She also had a depressing conversation with my Dad, who seemed off and his voice was raspy.
Took a brief walk to the Coop store - where I picked up Gluten-Free Pie shells for quiche, pizza, green beans, chocolate (I'd run out again) and other stuff.
During the day, I watched the first two episodes of WandaVision and the National Geographic documentary Free Solo. Wandavision is okay - it feels like a satire of sitcoms. Granted it is only the first two episodes - and they took place in the 1950s/60s - black and white, and felt like they were playing homage to Bewitched. Then, in the second episode, various things would be in color -- until at the very end everything was in color.
It's kind of trippy. Also bizarre in that they have five minutes worth of credits at the end. And most streaming shows skip over credits.
The other was Documentary Film Free Solo about Alex Honnold's climb up El Capitan in Yosemite with no ropes, becoming the first person to do it . This was compelling, comforting, beautiful, and relaxing to watch. Highly recommend - it's available on Disney + - National Geographic. I may watch more of the National Geographic documentaries - I find nature documentaries relaxing.
I'm more or less taking a break from the news at the moment. As are we all, I suspect.
Below is a picture of the attempt to do outdoor dining in my area. I don't know, I'm still unconvinced that this is safe - although I like what the wine bar did better than some other folks - it's more open, with heat lamps, and not as enclosed.
And...one more picture before I go - I like taking photos of the sky. And the sky was interesting today.
Tried plunging didn't work. (Found out later from super's wife that I had the wrong plunger...apparently a small one with a wooden handle and strong plastic rim, that you can press down flat - for maximum suction works best. Mine - which she'd ironically given me over three years ago...didn't work.)
Tried flushing - made it worse.
Tried bailing the water and putting it in the tank. Worked for a little while then not at all.
Folks I was bailing ice cold water out of my toilet until 5 am in the morning. I finally, FINALLY, figured out how to get the flap in the tank to press flat. Once that happened the bowl stopped filling up and overflowing.
Went to the bathroom in a bucket. Used trash bags inside it. And fretted that I'd have to go without a toilet in the middle of a pandemic. Then tried to go back to bed. I slepte for maybe an hour. Got up at 7 am, and the super's wife came at 7:30 with the plunger.
Super's wife: Let me try the plunger first. (Brandishing a small wooden plunger with a red cap.)
Me: I already did that.
Super's wife: Let's see what you used. (Looks at the big black plunger she'd given me about three years ago.) Oh that's useless. Piece of crap. It won't collapse down. You have to make it collasp for it to work. See? My husband does it all wrong too. I keep showing him.
[Five minutes later]
See? It worked. Flushes now. No issues.
I thank her profusely. I had to mop up my floor at 3 AM, so my bath mat, a towel and shower towel mat are all sopping wet. I hung them to dry, and then in the hamper. At 8 am, I cleaned my bathroom floor thorougly, along with the tub, and the toilet. I ate, I listened to Barack Obama read his book, I watched Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist ( which I like, oddly, better this year than last year - less jarring), and tried to take a nap.
After a half hour, Mother woke me up from the nap.
She explained what was so funny about the John Henson property in upstate New York (which you may or may not recall I posted about in the last post?). In 2019, sis-in-law went to Turkey to do a speech on textiles. One of the Turkish Ogliarchs called or emailed her this week - asking if she would check out some property for him in upstate New York. The realtor who is helping her check it out - is her former hair dresser in the city. And the property is the John Henson property. Mother found this whole thing to be hilarious of course. It is, but I'm also used to sis-in-law. So was unfazed.
Mother got the day off from PT, but her butt her hurt from sitting all day long in her wheel chair. She also had a depressing conversation with my Dad, who seemed off and his voice was raspy.
Took a brief walk to the Coop store - where I picked up Gluten-Free Pie shells for quiche, pizza, green beans, chocolate (I'd run out again) and other stuff.
During the day, I watched the first two episodes of WandaVision and the National Geographic documentary Free Solo. Wandavision is okay - it feels like a satire of sitcoms. Granted it is only the first two episodes - and they took place in the 1950s/60s - black and white, and felt like they were playing homage to Bewitched. Then, in the second episode, various things would be in color -- until at the very end everything was in color.
It's kind of trippy. Also bizarre in that they have five minutes worth of credits at the end. And most streaming shows skip over credits.
The other was Documentary Film Free Solo about Alex Honnold's climb up El Capitan in Yosemite with no ropes, becoming the first person to do it . This was compelling, comforting, beautiful, and relaxing to watch. Highly recommend - it's available on Disney + - National Geographic. I may watch more of the National Geographic documentaries - I find nature documentaries relaxing.
I'm more or less taking a break from the news at the moment. As are we all, I suspect.
Below is a picture of the attempt to do outdoor dining in my area. I don't know, I'm still unconvinced that this is safe - although I like what the wine bar did better than some other folks - it's more open, with heat lamps, and not as enclosed.
And...one more picture before I go - I like taking photos of the sky. And the sky was interesting today.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 12:41 am (UTC)Tip: If the bowl is overflowing, flushing again will *never* help.
Sadly some plungers are better than others. I don't recognize what your Super's wife used, but it worked and that's what counts.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 06:00 pm (UTC)Some clarifications..
The plunger that Super's wife used looked like This. She pressed it all the way down, so it almost turned inside out.
I didn't flush it immediately. (I'm not that stupid.) I bailed all the water out. Tried the plunger that looks like THIS.
Then tried to flush it. It got worse. Did the same thing again, with less water, and still didn't work. I kept trying. Got nowhere.
I was shocked it worked for her - but she showed me that you have press it so that the plunger collapses more, with strong rim, but collapsable top. (Hard to describe in writing or words.) And the one I had couldn't do that.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 09:21 pm (UTC)Unfortunately that makes no difference. The toilet works entirely on the water pressure in the bowl, so if the bowl is full near the rim, bailing and adding different water via the handle will never work. The handle just lets the water from the tank into the bowl, it does nothing down below.
The plunger your Super's wife used is the style I'm used to, though some like that a are black, too. The one that didn't work might be for a sink.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 10:28 pm (UTC)And sorry, bailing out the water did work - because it kept the toilet from flooding the bathroom. I had to get the flapper down - which took a while.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-18 06:55 am (UTC)But one important trick is to use suction, not pressure, to loosen a clog. Pressing the plunger down slowly, waiting a few seconds to give the rubber time to seal well against the bowl, then pulling up forcefully on the handle will often dislodge the obstruction by pulling it back from whatever it's stuck against. (Be careful not to get splashed).
If I do this, I then wait another few seconds to see if the water starts to seep out of the bowl (or sink, or bathtub, whatever), a sign you've loosened the clog. If the water drains, I then pour some more water in, see if that drains faster.
Only then do you try additional plunging or flushing.
(Yeah, been there, done that mannnnny times! Was fortunate to have worked with plumbers back in my appliance service days, who taught me those techniques).
no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 06:18 am (UTC)When I was leaving to head out to the grocery store at around 8:15 last night, I noticed that one of my neighbors from the street behind my street had a bunch of lights strung up above a picnic table in their back yard, and were clustered around it, apparently having a get-together. I shook my head, thinking that they must come from Norwegian ancestry or somesuch. I mean, yes, 40 degrees isn't super cold, but still-- I have to be moving briskly, like when I walk, for at least 20 minutes before I get even reasonably warm in my warm shirt, sweater, heavy coat and hat.
Yes, they were wearing coats, but, eeesh...
... and they were still there when I got back home at 9:00 PM!
To each their own! If the room that I sleep in drops below about 65 degrees I'll wake up. Not kidding.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-17 06:08 pm (UTC)The outdoor dining places have heat lamps. So they aren't that cold. Some have walls, so they look like outdoor dining cabins, which I think of as COVID incubators.
The most effective, I've seen, are without many walls and heat lamps. Sure you can't do inclement weather - but I'm not sure they could anyway.