Monday, July 21, 2008

Monday Moments....Things That Gurgle & Flush


Or don’t flush, such as the case may be…(hee,hee)

Maybe our water is just really hard, or maybe our toilet handles are just wimpy, or….. maybe we flush too hard. Whatever the case may be, we have broken two toilet handles in the span of just a few weeks. This has rendered our potties un-flushable by the normal method of pushing the outside handle.

Instead, you have to lift the back of the lid off the commode, and then reach inside to manually pull the lever that releases the water flow.

We have yet to go to Ace’s Hardware/Lowes/Home Depot for new potty handles, so in the last week, there has been a lot of “alternative flushing methods”

Not a big deal, UNLESS you happen to have your mother-in-law and her mother coming over on a Saturday morning for an extended visit.

This was the case this past weekend, and we didn’t remember until about an hour beforehand that our potties were still broken and our guests might need to use the bathroom. And then….well…..how would we ask them to flush?

My hubby went into big-time MacGyver mode, asking for some rubber bands and duct tape. I went into the bathroom a few minutes later to find that he was trying to jerry-rig a temporary handle made up of two used choptsticks held together by the rubber bands, and glued to the inside of the potty with lots of duct tape.

I lost it. I had to hang onto the bathroom sink (being careful not to break anything off of it! ) on account of my laughter.

I wish I had taken pictures, and I wish even more that his invention had worked.

Alas, the chopsticks wouldn’t hold, and we ended up explaining everything to our family members. My mother-in-law assured us she had experience in “alternative flushing methods” and made it in and out of the bathroom just fine.

I’ve heard of people dropping their cell phones in the toilet, but this past week I landed our phone in a rather uncommon swimming pool.

I was diving for the phone one morning this past week, when it slipped out of my hands and fell over the back of the kitchen counter. I wish I could say that this is an infrequent event, but the truth of the matter is that the phone takes regular spills off the counter, usually bouncing on the floor or landing in a pile of dry cat food. We had had several close calls with the cat’s water dish, but thankfully it always seemed to “just miss” taking a swim.

Well, on this particular morning, my hubby had moved the cat’s water to the opposite side of their food dish, thinking that if the phone fell, it would have a better chance of missing the water dish.

Turns out he was WRONG.

Instead, as the phone slipped like butter from my grasp, still sounding-off from the incoming call, I heard a sudden “SPLASH” and then a gurgled ring as the phone continued, even in it’s suddenly submerged state.

I was a big dummy, and picked up the phone to answer it (I know, I know….it was a blonde moment). My hubby was the one on the phone and he immediately asked me why the phone was making a loud buzzing sound in his ear.

I quickly recounted the phone’s “dip in the pool” and he advised me to immediately hang up, and take out the battery pack to let the phone dry.

I gingerly slid out the phone’s contents, and am happy to report that once dry, the phone made a miraculous recovery.

Also, we’ve found a new, safer home for the kitchen’s phone.

Although at the point, you might be wondering about water safety at the Smith household, I assure you that any visits to our abode (which oddly rhymes with commode) will be clean and dry……I just hope you don’t have to use the bathroom…….Just kidding!!!

We are getting it fixed this week…

Feel free to come over and flush the toilets just for fun if you’d like…..

Merry Monday everyone!!

2 comments:

Brandie said...

I didn't think it was possible for ANYONE else to experience the same toilet issues we were. God does have a sense of humor! I can totally relate to your story because BOTH or our toilet handles broke around the same time not too long ago. I wasn't very patient in waiting for Jeff to fix them, so I took it upon myself. It wasn't hard to fix them, or so I thought. I bought the wrong part the first time but got it right the second time. Then, there are these little hooks inside that grab a chain that is connected to the little lever. Long story short, ours kept getting caught so the toilet would RUN and RUN and RUN! One morning almost two weeks after it was supposed to be fixed, I just about had a melt down. I told Jeff I can handle just about anything - but if the toilet didn't get fixed soon I was going to loose it!

I'm happy to say that after a month or more of toilet madness, ours our both working well.

:0)

On a side note, before we put our house on the market before Abby was born, we had to repair our guest bathroom toilet. There was a water saving device on there. In order for the toilet to flush for the next person, you had to giggle the handle. I can't tell you the number of times people would come out of the bathroom with a completely embarassed look, to report that it didn't flush! At our annual Xmas party one year, I had to put a yellow sticky note in there that read, giggle to flush! I HATED that darn toilet.

Anonymous said...

ok so I would love to laught OUTLOUD at this one...but I am at a little cafe type place and I don't want people to think I am totally crazy.

this is too funny and I can so imagine this going on in the Smith household!! Hope you get things undercontrol soon!!

Love Ya