Tuesday, May 31, 2022

So, Of Course

      Yesterday, I was running around and getting nerve up to go work at the Main Campus for only the third time since coronavirus dispersal in March of 2020.

      I'm old and out of shape.  I took a short soak in bathwater loaded with Epsom salt.  Ahh, relief!

      At least, I was relieved until I opened the drain for a quick rinse and the water didn't drain.   Worked the valve a few times and the level sank a bit; rinsed off, dried, started getting ready and tried the one of those disposable clog-grabbers.  It felt like it grabbed a clog, all right, but I couldn't pull it out -- and the draining process came to a stop.

      I fiddled with it for far too long, was late to work, and returned home eight hours later to several inches of standing water in the tub.  This morning, I made a little hook out of thin steel wire and cleared the clog, using needle-nose pliers on some of it.  Yeah, the standard hair-clog that afflicts anyone with hair of greater than crew-cut length.  And no, I'm not pondering a shorter 'do for summer, thank you very much.

5 comments:

fillyjonk said...

been there, done that, it's an annoyance for sure.

I also inherited, as it turned out, a slightly clogged sewer line (previous homeowner had a small hairy dog she apparently washed regularly in the tub) and I had to get plumbers out to root out the line (and send a camera down to be sure it wasn't broken). That was not cheap but at least now I have a "cleanout" on that line that never existed before.

I've become a LOT more careful about periodically using the barbed "grabber" I have in the shower drain.

Antibubba said...

Here's a bath tip for you: instead of Epsom salts, try magnesium chloride. Much better muscle relief.

Dr. Coyote said...

Ugh, sorry you had to deal with this, RX. Balky drains and leaky roofs, the twin banes of indoor dwelling since... since we started dwelling indoors.

Bob W said...

You might try a product called a TubShroom. It seems to be pretty effective catching long curly hair. We have the one with the chrome top and drain plug. We typically take showers so the drain plug is rarely used.
amazon.com/s?k=TubShroom&crid=1QUT3KH0GE4LS&sprefix=tubshroom%2Caps%2C351&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Matt said...

I've been looking for a small plumber's snake in local auction sites for this purpose. I figure a couple of uses will amortize its cost.

Otherwise I might buy a new Harbor Freight or equivalent outright, for the same reason. Saving a couple hundred dollar plumber call would be good.