Just as we were fixing dinner on Sunday (pot-roasted chicken with lemon, garlic and rosemary, should anyone be interested) I ran the disposal so it wouldn’t backwash into the dishwasher when I did a load of dishes, but the water kept filling the sink and emptying very slowly. Vigorous action with the plumbers’ friend did not help at all… in fact, it got rather worse. The usual sort of caustic chemical goo emptied down the sink did not help either, although the metal parts of the drain looked amazingly clean following application of the goo. The water would back up, and then drain veeerrrrrryyyy slowly, which was not good. It was good, however, that water or sewage was not emerging anywhere else in the house… like the master bathroom sink, which is what happened last time there was a clog in the main outfall drain a short way downhill of the master bathroom sink. All the other sinks, toilets and bathtubs drained normally.

I am, alas, no stranger to my household plumbing system (said she, laughing hollowly!) I have replaced all three faucet sets in the house, as well as the disposal and the kitchen sink. The last time I had a clog in the main outfall; when several gallons of waste sent down the kitchen sink disposal geysered disgustingly up in the master bathroom sink a few minutes later, it cost me roughly $100, and an afternoon off work to sort it out. But I considered that it was money well spent; not just for the work done, all twenty minutes or so of it, but for the educational value.

Yes, I stood over the roto-rooter man like a deranged stalker girlfriend, watching every move and asking heaps of questions. It did not look like brain surgery or rocket science, and I was damned if I would pay that much money again for something I could jolly well do myself, with the aid of the kindly neighborhood rental equipment place. Oh, yes, they know me almost as well as the hardware store people… it’s where I rented the nailer and compressor when I replaced the fence, a tall ladder to do something or other, the long-handled arbor saw and all those other things one only needs for an hour or so every two or three years. (Northeast Rental Center, on Nacogdoches… ask for Dan. He’ll ask questions to sort out what you need, and then tell you exactly how to operate it.)

The manual snake rented at $15 for three hours. I had it sorted in twenty minutes flat, but I wanted to run a load of dishes through the dishwasher just to make absolutely sure the clog was dislodged. Twenty minutes, fifteen bucks, plus another ten minutes either way to the rental place, plus a morning not spent waiting for a plumber to grace your household with his presence. Works for me, people, works for me.