An Educational Experience in Plumbing

 

Over the course of the past 48 hours, I’ve learned more about plumbing than I ever wanted to know – and this was NOT one of my retirement goals.  I know there’s a sticky compound called plumber’s putty.  I know there’s a cute little curvy pipe called a p-trap.  Our p-trap was showing signs of extreme old age and, alas, there was no cure.  Elliott had bought a new one a couple of days ago at Ace Hardware.  He thought it would be a simple matter to remove the decaying p-trap.  However, he found that he had to saw through the equally decaying drain pipe in order to remove the old p-trap.  Then, of course, we needed a new drain pipe.  Hence, yesterday’s trip to Ace Hardware.  With typical enthusiasm, Elliott immediately got to work after dinner installing the new pop-in drain in the bathroom sink.  Around 8:30 pm, when I was finally sitting down to do some reading, a single expletive rang through the quiet of the house.  Elliott rarely uses bad language, so I knew right away that the news was bad.  I made my way to the bathroom and saw the cause of his disgust: a ½ gap where the bottom of the new drain pipe was supposed to connect to the p-trap.  Believe me, if Ace Hardware had been open then, we would have been on our way.  Fortunately, the store had closed half an hour earlier.  But we’re up early this morning so we can be Ace’s first customers today!