So, to continue with this saga...I call a plumber, who snakes the line upstairs and can't find a clog, so he snakes the line downstairs through the cleanout in the hot water heater closet and that's when the toilet paper and water explosion occurred. The pipe was full of water so he wanted to let it drain out slowly, but it had other ideas and shot the plug out and covered him with toilet paper and drenched him. It was both hilarious and disgusting. He didn't seem overly concerned; I guess this comes with the job, but I was horrified on his behalf. I got towels and helped him clean off, but he eventually simply told me he was hitting something hard in the line, it wouldn't move, and it was most likely construction debris, like a measuring tape or grout or something.
He told me he couldn't do any more and it was time to bring in a camera and run it down the pipe. His company charged $400 an hour for that little service. But he suggested another company that only charged $15o. So, I called the other company and they came out the next day with the camera. And that's when I found out I had a rock in my sewer line. How did it get there, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine but one thing was for sure: it was placed there purposely. We speculated a construction worker was upset and put it there. I did find out the previous tenant was a druggie and was unhappy about being asked to move out, so he is the likely culprit. Stupid drug addicts.
But alas, there's nothing I can do about it now but figure out how to get it out. The seller was unsympathetic to my situation, so I was on my own. Bummer. The plumber worked for 2 hours and had to leave and promised to come back a few days later, which he did...and he worked for another 3 hours and only charged me for one hour, which was awesome. He used a variety of high-tech tools, such as coat hangers and cables and wet vacs, but we could not move the rock. He got it within 6 inches of the floor and then it fell back down. It was quite frustrating.
He felt the next step was jackhammering up the bathroom floor to get to the rock. I was horrified. My new ceramic tile floor? I think not! But when he left, he said to call him once the floor was torn up and he'd retrieve my rock. Then the next day he called back and said he wanted to try one more time to get the rock out. Trouble was, I was headed home to Texas for Christmas, so this would have to wait.
Christmas in Texas was nice, got to see good friends and family, got sick, lost my voice and found out my dog was sick back home. Fun.
Came home, and the plumber didn't come out as promised, but the owner of the company DID. They worked another three hours to retrieve the rock and never did. The owner didn't even charge me for those three hours and told me to call an excavation company to jack hammer up the floor.
The next day the owner calls again and says he took the liberty of calling an excavation company and spoke to the owner and the owner of that company said they could come over right away and give me a quote. True to their word, they came the next day, quoted me a price and came out the following day to do the work.
So...the jack hammering was seriously not that bad and the guys that came out were really nice. The rock was retrieved and I cleaned it up and indeed plan to place it in an area of great honor in my flower bed. What a fiasco! But it's done and I can now flush my toilet and wash my laundry, which is always a big plus in life.
My life got ridiculously overwhelming in the course of a couple of days with a string of bad luck...let me list the things that have gone wrong...a rock in my sewer, my phone went out, then my cell phone shorted out because I set it in my car cup holder which was full of water because my Wendy's cup that was full of water froze and then melted and exploded out the bottom of the cup and filled up the cup holder...and I put my phone in the cup holder while driving. So then I was without a phone at all. In the meantime I went over my cell minutes 204 minutes at 45 cents a minute because my home phone was out. Then I went home for Christmas and Scooter got sick back home in Colorado and had to see the emergency vet and now I have to take him to the heart and lung specialist in Denver. Back in Texas, my return flight was canceled so I was stuck in Dallas. I spent the night with Mel, which was nice, but it was so irritating to spend the afternoon and evening in DFW because American Airlines can't get their crap together. Then while I'm home I get sick. When I fly back to Colorado , I miss my connecting flight in Dallas because I was visiting with Mel and waited too long to get to my gate and missed my flight. I get home and one of our friends realizes her husband has been having an affair and there's major drama with children involved and I'm in the middle because I have the unfortunate ability to look on computers and find details that are better left unfound. More drama after details such as phone records are found. Oops, sorry dude, but learn to cover your tracks better when your wife has a friend that's a computer nerd. Then this morning Scooter is bleeding all over the house due to a mole he has scratched and I can't stop the bleeding with what was available in the house, which was a makeup pad and a Scooby Doo band aid for children.
I want off the merry go round. None of these things is worth bitching about separately, but when they all happen at once it's very frustrating and overwhelming. Add to this list a bunch of bitchy clients that want everything NOW and you've got one overwhelmed and grumpy mountain woman.
:) Some days you just need to throw a pity party for yourself.
I did something today that I have never done before. I attended a political rally.
Today I felt hopeful. Today I was surrounded by thousands of people who felt hopeful. And that felt good. No fear. Only hope. There were smiles, nods, claps, whoops. Senator Barack Obama is a rock star; that's no secret. The man commands the room. When he speaks, he inspires. When he tells me something, I believe. It was exciting. It felt like John Lennon was in the house. He just has that "holy crap, this guy is special" vibe around him. People were passionate about him. The arena held 8,000 people. They were expecting between 5,000 to 7,000 people to attend today. There were over 19,000 of us there. I couldn't even get in the same building he was in. I had to listen to his speech while sitting in the bleachers of a Lacrosse field in below freezing temperatures after waiting in line for an hour and a half. Caroline Kennedy was also there.
There were hundreds of us on that field listening to his speech over the loud speakers. It was nice being surrounded with like-minded people. I met some very cool folks today. We bashed Hiliary and mocked the State of the Union address. We carried well-worn copies of "The Audacity of Hope." We used cell phones and digital cameras to document the event. It was definitely a day I will never forget.