KathyRN137
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,882
Pre-Trip #44:
Ghosts and Goblins in the Sewer
Well this wouldn’t really be a proper PTR without the requisite pre-departure crisis, would it? And, as fate would have it, I’m getting tricked on trick or treat day! It seems as though we have ghosts and goblins in the sewer.
A couple of days ago, just as Ed was heading out the door to go away for his class, I was finishing my umpteenth load of laundry when the washing machine began to leak. Okay, no biggie, it’s done this before. I’ve been doing a lot of wash lately, trying to get ahead of the game, and so the drainage line was probably getting clogged with lint and dog hair.
A good snaking and the line would be clear again.
Only problem was, my snake, um I mean, snak-er, was leaving right at that very minute! “You’ll just have to wait until I get back,” he hissed. (I’m just kidding… he really couldn’t do it, he was already running late.)
*Sigh* Oh well, so much for that. At least we all had plenty of fresh, clean clothes for the next three days. I would just have to catch up on Thursday. Plenty of other things I needed to do….
So, all was just peachy until this morning. I came into the bathroom to check on Billy’s progress in the shower and… squish, squish! The bathmat was soaked! Water everywhere!
Naturally, I just assumed he had opened the shower curtain and that’s how everything got so wet. I even scolded him gently as I helped him dry off. (Why is it that boys appear to be blissfully unaware that their bodies are still half-wet when they are trying to put their clothes on? 
) I mopped up the water and let Tricia in to take her shower while I went to make their lunches.
“Mo-om!!” Tricia called, “The bathroom floor is all wet again!” Oh no.
I ran into the bathroom and saw that there was now even more water on the floor, mostly around the base of the toilet. And, the bathtub drain was clogged.
Oh, Tartar Sauce!!
I called our plumber, who happens to be the father of one of Tricia’s friends, and left a message. Then I called one of the other nurses and asked if she wouldn’t mind working the morning for me. (Fortunately, I was only scheduled to work a half-day today.) Her kids were grown, so working on Halloween was no big deal for her.
Got the kids off to school, put in a voicemail message for Ed to call, and settled in to wait for the plumber to call back. Fortunately, he did so quickly. “Sounds like it’s a problem with your main sewer line,” he said. “Why don’t you call the Township and see if they will clear out the line? Otherwise, I have a sewer company that I do a lot of work with…” I thanked him and hung up, feeling a bit queasy at the thought of the frightening fee they would charge.
I ran across to my neighbor on the left. “Any problems with your sewer backing up?” I ventured. Nope. Luckily for her, all was well. I caught my neighbor on the right as she was dashing off for work. “Any problems with your sewer backing up?” I asked, hopefully. I clung tight to the thought that it had something to do with all the leaves in the street. Yes, she had a problem, but it was a few weeks ago. “It’s the tree roots, they break into the sewer lines,” she said. “I had to pay Rotor Rooter $6000 to fix it!”
My heart sank. Six thousand dollars because of tree root damage. There goes our January couples trip.
“Park-like setting….”
Ughh. That phrase was back to haunt me again!
Ed called back and I told him about the ghosts and goblins in the sewer, trying to sound lighthearted and as least stressed out as possible. He told me to call back as soon as I knew anything, and that he would be home that afternoon as early as he could. I waited until 8:30 to call the Dept of Water and Sewer. A voice on the answering machine instructed me, in no uncertain terms, that I should not leave a message, that a message would not be returned and that I should call back when the office opened at 8:30.
Eight thirty-five: same message.
Eight forty: same message. (Did the local government declare that Halloween was now an official holiday and I was somehow unaware of it?)
Eight forty-five: Finally, a real person! I explained the situation to the secretary and she promised to send someone over to make an assessment. “But, you know,” she pointed out, “If it was a major problem with the sewer, your neighbors would be having trouble, too.” I took this to be a thinly-veiled warning that this may wind up being something that I, the homeowner, would end up having to pay for privately. Great.
The ring-tone of my phone interrupted my slow decent into depression. It was Ed. “I called up the Water Department and spoke to So-and So. What’s His Name will be coming by soon. He’ll check it out; if he can take care of it, he will.”
I guess that, sometimes, it’s good to be a township employee! ::cop:
Within ten minutes, What’s His Name was at the door and his colleague was already sweeping the front lawn with some sort of metal detector. The men determined that it was a problem with the main sewer line, most probably caused by the roots of the enormous oak on our front lawn. “Happens all the time around here,” he said.
Aha!
Nah-Nah, Ed, we girls are not clogging up the line with too much toilet paper!! (Tricia and I hear this all the time…) It was just the trees, playing a Halloween Trick.
Then the fellow made a call and informed me that a sewer drainage company would need to come later that day to clear out the line. I winced. “How much?” I whispered, bracing for the blow. “We’ll take care of it,” he said. “Tell Grumpy I said to have a great trip!”
Whew! What a Treat!!
Kathy
Ghosts and Goblins in the Sewer
Well this wouldn’t really be a proper PTR without the requisite pre-departure crisis, would it? And, as fate would have it, I’m getting tricked on trick or treat day! It seems as though we have ghosts and goblins in the sewer.
A couple of days ago, just as Ed was heading out the door to go away for his class, I was finishing my umpteenth load of laundry when the washing machine began to leak. Okay, no biggie, it’s done this before. I’ve been doing a lot of wash lately, trying to get ahead of the game, and so the drainage line was probably getting clogged with lint and dog hair.
A good snaking and the line would be clear again. Only problem was, my snake, um I mean, snak-er, was leaving right at that very minute! “You’ll just have to wait until I get back,” he hissed. (I’m just kidding… he really couldn’t do it, he was already running late.)
*Sigh* Oh well, so much for that. At least we all had plenty of fresh, clean clothes for the next three days. I would just have to catch up on Thursday. Plenty of other things I needed to do….
So, all was just peachy until this morning. I came into the bathroom to check on Billy’s progress in the shower and… squish, squish! The bathmat was soaked! Water everywhere!
Naturally, I just assumed he had opened the shower curtain and that’s how everything got so wet. I even scolded him gently as I helped him dry off. (Why is it that boys appear to be blissfully unaware that their bodies are still half-wet when they are trying to put their clothes on? ) I mopped up the water and let Tricia in to take her shower while I went to make their lunches.“Mo-om!!” Tricia called, “The bathroom floor is all wet again!” Oh no.
I ran into the bathroom and saw that there was now even more water on the floor, mostly around the base of the toilet. And, the bathtub drain was clogged.
Oh, Tartar Sauce!!
I called our plumber, who happens to be the father of one of Tricia’s friends, and left a message. Then I called one of the other nurses and asked if she wouldn’t mind working the morning for me. (Fortunately, I was only scheduled to work a half-day today.) Her kids were grown, so working on Halloween was no big deal for her.
Got the kids off to school, put in a voicemail message for Ed to call, and settled in to wait for the plumber to call back. Fortunately, he did so quickly. “Sounds like it’s a problem with your main sewer line,” he said. “Why don’t you call the Township and see if they will clear out the line? Otherwise, I have a sewer company that I do a lot of work with…” I thanked him and hung up, feeling a bit queasy at the thought of the frightening fee they would charge.
I ran across to my neighbor on the left. “Any problems with your sewer backing up?” I ventured. Nope. Luckily for her, all was well. I caught my neighbor on the right as she was dashing off for work. “Any problems with your sewer backing up?” I asked, hopefully. I clung tight to the thought that it had something to do with all the leaves in the street. Yes, she had a problem, but it was a few weeks ago. “It’s the tree roots, they break into the sewer lines,” she said. “I had to pay Rotor Rooter $6000 to fix it!”
My heart sank. Six thousand dollars because of tree root damage. There goes our January couples trip.
“Park-like setting….”
Ughh. That phrase was back to haunt me again!
Ed called back and I told him about the ghosts and goblins in the sewer, trying to sound lighthearted and as least stressed out as possible. He told me to call back as soon as I knew anything, and that he would be home that afternoon as early as he could. I waited until 8:30 to call the Dept of Water and Sewer. A voice on the answering machine instructed me, in no uncertain terms, that I should not leave a message, that a message would not be returned and that I should call back when the office opened at 8:30.
Eight thirty-five: same message.
Eight forty: same message. (Did the local government declare that Halloween was now an official holiday and I was somehow unaware of it?)
Eight forty-five: Finally, a real person! I explained the situation to the secretary and she promised to send someone over to make an assessment. “But, you know,” she pointed out, “If it was a major problem with the sewer, your neighbors would be having trouble, too.” I took this to be a thinly-veiled warning that this may wind up being something that I, the homeowner, would end up having to pay for privately. Great.
The ring-tone of my phone interrupted my slow decent into depression. It was Ed. “I called up the Water Department and spoke to So-and So. What’s His Name will be coming by soon. He’ll check it out; if he can take care of it, he will.”
I guess that, sometimes, it’s good to be a township employee! ::cop:
Within ten minutes, What’s His Name was at the door and his colleague was already sweeping the front lawn with some sort of metal detector. The men determined that it was a problem with the main sewer line, most probably caused by the roots of the enormous oak on our front lawn. “Happens all the time around here,” he said.
Aha!
Nah-Nah, Ed, we girls are not clogging up the line with too much toilet paper!! (Tricia and I hear this all the time…) It was just the trees, playing a Halloween Trick.Then the fellow made a call and informed me that a sewer drainage company would need to come later that day to clear out the line. I winced. “How much?” I whispered, bracing for the blow. “We’ll take care of it,” he said. “Tell Grumpy I said to have a great trip!”
Whew! What a Treat!!
Kathy
.
. 
. 
, Bill is checking the weather sites daily.
