HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone. Christmas was wonderful. My surprise gift was a ticket to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert, the next day! I was so surprised. I could hardly wait. I was going to drive to their house by 4 so we could leave by 5. It was in Newark.
By 3pm I got a nice hot bubble bath and came downstairs to get ready. Had to use the bathroom and it didn't flush. Really? Half hour before I have to leave and this happens. So I get out the plunger and nothing happens. So I call Chuck in a panic and he comes over in 10 minutes with his super dooper plunger. Aaaaaaaaaaand nothing happens. He goes down in the basement to see if it is going out to the septic tank and finds that by plunging he broke the seal on the toilet. YAYYYY He looks at the workings in the tank and finds it has completely rusted away. Since my toilet is from the year one, I need a new toilet. He turns off the water and I get dressed and he drives me to his house to get ready to leave for the concert.
The concert was AMAZING! Fireworks, smoke and lasers and the music. It was a two hour show and I loved every minute of it. The grandkids didn't like it because it was too loud for them. Kind of a sensory overload. But we all loved it.
Chuck brought me home and turned my water back except for the toilet. The next day I had an 8:30 appointment just for a checkup on my elbow. Everything is going well there.
Chuck had gone to Lowes and gotten me a new toilet with lots of other stuff. He hauls it into the SUV, then hauls it up the porch stairs and into my house. He hauls the old toilet out into the back yard. He cleans up everything and then unpacks the new toilet only to find that the tank lid is broken. Sooooooo he has to pack it all back up, haul it back to the car and back to Lowe's to get a new toilet.
Does this sound like a fun day to you?? He finally gets the new toilet installed and it's great. Except when he checks in the basement it sounds like it's not draining into the septic tank. So I call the septic tank cleaners and they say we can be there tomorrow between 9 and 11, but by the way, you have to dig up where the lid to the tank is. They don't do that anymore. So poor Chuck who had been working here since 11:30 had to dig out the cover at 3. He hadn't even stopped for lunch.
He was glad to go home. Yesterday I waited for the cleaner to come and I got a call at 11 that he had run into a problem and would be there between 1 and 2.
Well, he made it and said it didn't look too bad at all. After he cleaned it out he said that it looked like the pipe from the house had roots and debre clogging it up. I made a quick call to Roto Rooter and they came within the hour. He went down the basement and did his magic and everything was running fine. Between the two it cost me around $600 not counting the toilet.
Everything is fine today and I'm sure glad it's over. It has been very stressful and I'm still not back to normal.
I haven't done much on my trip report. I'm so sorry. But I plan to finish the typing of it this coming week and as soon as I get the pictures posted. I can get it all posted.