ROUGHING IT
Once again, events conspire to emasculate me. The sewer problem we had earlier in the week has returned, meaning that our toilets are unflushable, the showers and sinks and washers will back up into the alley alongside our home, and I can't do a damn thing about it. Can't unblock the stoppage, either- it's somewhere between the house and the street, it's probably root damage, it's not covered by insurance, and it's going to require thousands of dollars I can't afford and lots of digging and ripping and stuff that will be both extensive and time-consuming. And they can't get to it until Monday, when they can send a camera down there and see where the trouble is.
And again, as someone who prides himself on being able to fix stuff himself, this is agony. I can't just pop something open and tinker around until it works like I do with computers, or replace a few parts and get things operational again, like when I fixed the DVD player with a few replacement capacitors and a soldering iron (one of my greatest electronic triumphs). I don't have one of those 30 foot electrical snake things. I don't happen to have root cutters in the garage, ready to take on the clogs. I could probably dig up the lawn and replace the old clay pipes with PVC and a new cleanout, but it would take weeks, be exhausting, and end up looking like the surface of the moon. And I don't know where exactly the pipes run, so I could be digging up a lot of territory. Worse, the damage might be beneath the driveway or concrete, so I'm way out of my league if I have to go rent a jackhammer.
No, this is a job for professionals, which means I get to look like a typical suburban homeowner, befuddled and able only to nod and agree to everything the plumber says. And while I'm waiting to look stupid, I get to have no plumbing for a couple of days. We can use public bathrooms when we need to, or use ours and not flush (EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW), and we can drive 20 minutes to the Y to take showers (or jump into the pool, which today is probably at a balmy 40 degrees fahrenheit- no matter HOW hot it is around here, the water's ALWAYS Polar Bear Swim chilly). But we're going to be inconvenienced, we're going to be at the mercy of the plumbers, and we're going to be sucked dry of whatever money we may have left.
Any freelance work out there? I'm gonna need it.
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