Screams from a Not-So-Domestic Goddess (Part 2)

I spent many years as a single mother; so I learned a bit of household maintenance. This  wasn’t always easy for me. My children have humorous stories about my attempts to get things done through the years. At least my grandchildren will know I was a domestic adventurer!

The successes are those that I still savor; like the time I put a new faucet in my kitchen sink.  Much younger, more ambitious, and fairly broke, I decided to do the job myself.  After the greater part of a day, and an ex-husband who dropped by to enjoy the show for awhile (not to help, mind you); I was able to enjoy my new faucet.  I also enjoyed the pride of a job well done, and not having to ask the ex for help.

I’ve had a lot of good help along the way; and haven’t always had to fend for myself.  My Dear Man was a tremendous help to me when I owned my own home. Together, we replaced the entire floor of the bathroom, and put flooring in my laundry room.  Several years later, he completely renovated his house, and I helped with that process as much as I was able. Design, construction, and renovation were a fascination for me for a couple of years during that project.  I began to feel quite handy.

I mention all of that as the backstory for what happened to me today.   One-half of my kitchen sink was clogged. We’ve limped along using only half of the sink; and I’m ashamed to say that that I was waiting for Dear Man to fix it for me.  Now is the time to mention that he lives 650 miles away, in another state.  We see one another every two to three weeks. Sharing the same name, and living in two different states makes for an interesting relationship (more posts on that at another time).  He is fastidious about domestic maintenance, of all kinds; and he often pours bleach down my drains to keep them from clogging.  We must have overwhelmed the bleach this time.

I finally felt some shame about the waiting, and tried to tackle the sink myself.  Bleach worked for DM, so it would certainly work for me, right? I dumped a gallon in the sink before I went to bed last night. This morning, I went in the kitchen, expecting to find clear, shining stainless steel; and was greeted with the same yucky sink I’ve lived with all week.  The smell of bleach permeated everything; and, even worse, it looked like the other side was backing up.  I panicked a bit and put in a call to DM for advice.

While waiting for him to return my call, I was thinking about this post and the nature of plumbing in general. Plumbing, as with a plunger. I realized that I’d overlooked the most obvious answer to my situation, a simple plunger.  Laughing at my self, I quickly plunged the sink until it was draining normally again. When DM called, I was able to relay this story to him, so that he could laugh at me, too. Ah well, it will just be one more story for the grandchildren; and a small lesson for me on self-reliance.

~C-Lea

Screams from a Not-So-Domestic Goddess