The drain pipe going out of our laundry tub is plugged. And I mean plugged. The last time I did a full load of laundry, I came downstairs just in time to hear water spilling out over the top. We decided to buy a gallon-sized jug of Draino and applied it in various amounts for various periods of time: when it doesn’t work the first time, add more and let it sit longer. Turn on water, watch it back up and start filling the tub in about thirty seconds, repeat.
So we finally called Roto-Rooter. (As much as I enjoy not washing my clothes for weeks at a time, it shouldn’t reach the point where they’re capable of escaping from the laundry hamper under their own power.) The guy came to the house today, looked at some paperwork and revealed that they were here in 2002 for the same problem. Eleven years is plenty of time for a significant amount of goo to collect in a drain pipe, so it’s not like they did a poor job.
In fact, they may have done a better job than we thought. When he mentioned the visit in ’02, Mom told me that we took a picture of the previous Roto-Rooter guy. Why? To make sure it wouldn’t back up again. How? We put the picture on the side of the washing machine so he maintained a constant threatening presence next to the drain pipe.
It worked for over a decade. While this new guy was fixing the pipes, Mom brought up the old picture that had been on the washing machine. The caption read, “I’m Watching You!” The picture… well, it was starting to look like that melty-face dude from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not as threatening anymore, which is probably why the drain had the proverbial balls to start backing up again.
