Is the signature crack next?
Sep 29th, 2008 by Cory
I’ve done more plumbing work since we’ve been in this house than in my entire life. I’m thinking of getting my plumber’s apprenticeship. First, we had the garbage disposal go out, and I stupidly volunteered to install it. This set a dangerous precedent. Next, the lever on the guest toilet upstairs broke. Okay sure, I just stood and watched as my father-in-law installed it, but I was the one that went to Lowe’s and bought the part. That still counts, right? Within a few weeks, the lever on our other toilet broke and then the “flapper” broke. I learned today that it is called a flapper and not “that rubber stopper thing at the bottom of the toilet tank.” The old one simply disintegrated in my hands when I first examined it. Dis-gus-ting.
So before I even went to the toilet flapper aisle at Lowe’s today, I first picked up a pair of heavy duty rubber cleaning gloves. I may be getting more handy around the house, but my germophobia is alive and well. After opening the gloves, I realized there was a trade-off. Rubber gloves protect your hands from touching icky things, but they stink. Like a skunk crawled into a tire filled with human hair, died, and then lit it on fire stinks. Despite the stink, it is still worth not putting my hand inside the toilet tank.
My question is, why the sudden toilet fatigue on an eight-year-old house? Could it just be aging, substandard hardware? Or a house with a pregnant woman, a diabetic and a 65-year-old man? Or, are we all just full of crap?
I don’t know why I’ve always found the water in the toilet tank gross. I mean, it’s just water until it meets what’s waiting for it in the bowl. The two are only “connected” in my head, really. Like when I’m drinking at a water fountain and hear someone flush a toilet inside the bathroom, causing the water pressure in the fountain to drop. Nothing “touches”, but I dislike the idea of my drinking water being “connected” to a toilet.
P.S. Evidently, as suspected, Mom doesn’t poop.
P.P.S. You created the first “plumber cracks” tag in the history of the internets. Congratulations.
The reason I find the water in the toilet tank gross is that it is (at my house anyway) slightly slimey because it never gets scrubbed as does the rest of the toilet. If Sean thinks drinking water at a water fountain while he hears a toilet flush followed by a drop in water pressure is unpleasant, he should try being a patient in a hospital trying to eat a meal when he hears his roommate on a potty chair and he the two of you are within a few feet of each other and separated only by a drawn curtain. This was one of my experiences during my hospital stay five years ago. I hope to God I never have to share a hospital room again. It’s strange that an eight-year-old house should have so many plumbing problems.
Hi!
My name is Jessika!