I NEEDED A WIN

This is a dumb story.

I know it's dumb, because it's so very common and trivial and anticlamactic, but still, I'm going to tell it because I needed a win.

Things have been...weird...for the past few months. Not necessarily bad, just...weird. I won't go into it now, or maybe ever, but suffice it to say that when there isn't something to post on social media, life is different.

Anyway, so that happens and then something very small and stupid happens, in my case, my tub got clogged.  A clogged tub is no big deal, but sometimes it can feel like a big deal, ya know?  Our house is old, the pipes are old, and the thing clogs up every once in a while, but this time it felt personal. I was having dreams about it, even.  I tried very hard to fix it the way I normally do, with caustic chemicals and bad language, but it didn't work. 

It wasn't just a regular clog, oh no.  This one was sentient and sneaky.  I thought I fixed it, but it came back with a vengeance. I considered asking Steve to fix it, but he's so busy all of the time I knew it would be a week or more before he would be able to do it.  It got so bad I thought we were going to have to call a plumber and I didn't want to do that!  I should be able to fix this! It was just a clog!!

OK, so after the chemicals and long bouts of fruitless plunging with the various plungers we had in the house, I finally gave up and asked my pastor, who has rental properties as a side hustle, how I should fix it.  He told me I needed a specific kind of plunger and how I needed to go about plunging it.  So I went to Wal-Mart and spent $30 buying the plunger and one of those drain snakes (for extra insurance.) I went home and did what I was told to do, and it didn't work.  If anything, it just made things worse! I also couldn't get the snake thing down the drain! I was down on my knees for I don't know how long using a hand plunger and I'm not going to lie, I almost cried.

I already know it was nothing to cry about, but that's just where I was. 

So I stopped, had dinner, and fell asleep for a little while.  I had given up.  I was done.

But when I woke up, I decided to try one more time.  Of course, this isn't a Hallmark movie, so nothing had changed.  It still didn't work.  I don't know how long I hung over the edge of the tub, plunging and cursing into the pipes, but all to no avail.  I still couldn't even get the damn snake thing into the drain!  WHY?!

I decided I would need to find out what old-ass pipes, installed in the 50s, looked like so I could figure out which direction I needed to stick the drain snake, so I Googled it.  Lo and behold, there was a video that, I swear, looked like it was taken in my bathroom.  Literally, if I didn't know better, I would have thought a strange man had been filming in my house, so I clicked on it.  Basically he said I needed to remove the flippy bit, you know, the thing that you flip so you can take baths instead of showers, stuff a plastic bag down into the empty space, and plunge the drain.  I thought that was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard, but I was willing to try anything at this point.

Y'all, it worked.  In less than 10 seconds, the clog broke free and the tub drained, and again, I almost found myself in tears over the stupid bathtub!  I have no idea how plumbing works, and I had no idea that the flippy thing (which has not worked in years) was a vent, but stuffing a freaking target bag down the flippy bit hole created a vacuum that allowed me to do the thing! I'd spent almost a week and more money than was necessary to fix it, and all it took was a plastic bag! 

So now I'm pretty sure I can do anything.  If you need your house roofed, or your windows replaced, or whatever, let me know.  I'm sure I can find a how-to video online and take care of it for you!  It's amazing what one small win can do, isn't it? : )