A Scenic World

So, a tiny, tiny taste of my day yesterday:

I was cleaning my bathtub with a generic bleach-based tub and tile cleaner. I had the bathwater running to rinse out the sponge as I cleaned. After a minute or two, I realized that the water wasn’t draining.

I am petrified of standing water (don’t ask), so I always keep Drano around in case I notice the slightest hint that there might be a clog. Nothing had indicated that the drain wasn’t working properly the day before, so I was really flummoxed.

I stopped cleaning and added a bit of the Drano to the water. I waited 30 minutes. Nothing. So I added more and waited again. Tiny little bubbles trickled up from the drain. At one point, a large bubble broke the surface, causing me to be filled with hope. But nothing else happened after that.

So I poured the entire bottle in.

After 30 minutes, there was still nothing happening. So I decided to call the maintenance personnel at my complex.

One problem with that: I had no idea what the number was.

A quick visit to my next-door neighbor who’s lived here for 37 years remedied that situation. Armed with the phone number to our landlord (who lives about 45 miles away), I placed the call I hoped would fix everything. Except that the connection was incredibly bad and I had NO IDEA what he was saying on the phone. I just kept repeating my problem and my apartment number and hoped for the best.

Since I’d spent the morning cleaning, I was in desperate need of a shower. Jennifer graciously offered her shower, so I headed over with just enough time to get to work on time. As soon as I walked into her apartment though, backpack slung over one shoulder, I realized I’d left my shoes at home (curse my propensity for flip-flops!).

Luckily, she headed back to my place while I showered and retrieved my shoes. Whew. I at least made it to work clean.

When I got home nine hours later, I immediately noticed a bleach smell. Hmmmm. A quick survey of the bathtub indicated that the drain was clear! But a quick survey of the internet indicated that it was a pretty bad idea to mix Drano and bleach.

So I opened the windows, called my mother for advice (sorry about that midnight phone call!), and waited for three hours before finally closing the windows and calling it a night. I would have left the windows open while I slept, but I don’t live in that kind of neighborhood.

And I woke up, alive.

Whew.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 7:57 am and is filed under Humorous Story, 365. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.