One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days? Of course you have. We all do.

Yesterday was one of those days. There was nothing catastrophic or horrible that happened. It was just one of those days.

At 2:30 in the morning Freckles woke us up by jumping up on the bed, making his way between us and sauntering up to our heads snoozing comfortably on our pillows. Now Freckles never does this unless he perceives that there is a problem in the house.

I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep until I knew what Freckle's problem was.

I tip toed down the upstairs hallway, trying not to disturb Barb. It didn't take long to discover Freckle's problem, hey had gotten sick at the top of the steps. He also got sick twice in the second bathroom, then he got sick in the kitchen, and even once more right in his bowl of food. This was a problem.

That's the order that I discovered things, but he probably enacted this in reverse of how I found it.

I checked out Freckles to see if he was feeling alright. He looked fine. He looked like good 'ol Freckles. He looked hungry.

I cleaned everything up. Freckles had woke Barb up too and she hadn't been able to go back to sleep. By the time I finished cleaning up Barb was coming downstairs. We started our day at 2:30 in the morning.

I fed Freckles.

He ate heartily.

It was cold for June, just in the 60s, it was an overcast day with steady, light rains throughout the entire day, with occassional downpours. It was also grocery day.

Our trip to the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker went incredibly smooth actually. We seem to have found the perfect time to go when the least amount of people are there.

But...it is the grocery store...even being a good trip, it's still one of my least favorite things to do. It still helps to make it one of those days.

Plus, on our way out to the car to leave for the grocery store, Barb noticed that the sewer pipe that leads from our house to the public line was backing up into the yard. I wasn't smiling.

As soon as I got back from the grocery store with Barb, I went across the street to the deli to see if they could recommend who to call. It's the deli. They know everything and everyone because everyone ends up in the deli on a regular basis.

They gave me a name. He said he'd be out in about 45-minutes.

The scenario was this, a vent towards the back of the yard was backing up showing that there was blockage somewhere between that spot and the connection to the public sewer.

The plumber saw the old cast iron sewer pipes in my yard, looked at a big old tree nearby, and predicted that the tree roots had grown into the pipes and created a jam.

He first tried to plunge the clog clear. He had the world's largest plunger. Sewer gushed back out of the vent pipe as he pulled the plunger out. It was raining. The clog didn't clear.

He ran a 75-foot electric snake into the pipe. The electric snake would clear the pipe and whatever is clogging things, even if it is tree roots, the plumber said. He told me if it is tree roots the snake will bring evidence of that back with it.

The snake slowly moved through the pipe. It kept raining. We stood there in rain and mud and sewage...just waiting.

He deduced that we had reached the public line by a change of sound through the pipes, a more hallow sound perhaps from entering a larger pipe.

So we pulled the snake back. The clog was now free and everything was flowing. We continued to stand there in the rain, as the snake moves very slowly through the pipe.

The plumber explained to me the scenario. If it is roots, which he suspected it was, the pipe would be clear and functional. But it would likely clog again, maybe in a month, maybe in a year.

"If it is roots," he said, "I will have evidence on the snake when it comes out.

I had decided to hang out in the rain from the beginning because I knew this was one of those jobs where I might be looking at $300 or $3,000. There was a chance we would have to dig up our yard here with heavy machinery.

I was soaking wet.

The snake came out and to the plumber's surprise it was completely clean. There wasn't a thing on it. It was actually shiny and kind of looked like new.

The plumber wanted one more try to make sure. We stood in the rain, steady light rain with occasional short downpours. He took the electric snake all the way out again and all the way back in.

The moment of truth...it was completely clean.

The pipe was now clear. There was no actual conclusion to what caused the blockage. We don't have to dig up our yard with heavy machinery. All ended well.

Since my neighbor had this exact same problem a couple weeks ago, the plumber did develop a theory that perhaps the borough did some work on the nearby public sewer line and maybe a sludge ball just found their ways into my and my neighbors pipes.

Interesting. But I'm just happy we have everything working again.

It's not the end of the world, it's just one of those days.