Friday, June 12, 2009

The impromptu snaking

In a past life I was MacGyver. Without the mullet, obviously.

The new house is wonderful, but no move is without its hiccups and quirks. Our lovely war time sweet pea sat vacant all winter. For the most part that doesn't matter, except when it comes to kitchen drains. I'm guessing all that time to sit means whatever was living in the pipes petrified, because after washing up the other night, the drain was decidedly slow. By morning, it was officially backed up.

I begrudgingly grabbed some draino - I don't like using the stuff, but vinegar and baking soda is not going to do the trick, sorry Environment. After two bottles of it, it looked like it was time to call a plumber.

Unless.

I asked myself the eternal question. The one kids wear as bracelets...What Would MacGyver Do?

He'd make his own pipe snake, of course.

Which is when I realized that we don't keep a lot of wire hangers in this house as a rule. We worked really hard to get all nice ones for our front closet (that we no longer have) and the Husband spent money on real fancy ones for his suits.

(I'd like to colour this little story with a note: the Husband was contentedly leafing through a flyer the ENTIRE time I was on my MacGyver mission. I didn't even tell him what I was doing. He didn't notice. Men.)

Finally, I found an old dry cleaning hanger. I untwisted it, donned gloves and down it went, scraping, poking and turning in the very clogged drain.

"I think someone is tinkering," the husband says from the other room.

"You say tinkering, I say fixing," I mumbled.

Poke, poke, poke and SWOOSH! Oh, yeah - who has two thumbs and is basically a plumber? This girl!

Mr. Wumpus sheepishly walks in to the kitchen, "Well done, MacGyver."

At least he knows when he's in the presence of greatness.

1 comment:

Jennifer P said...

On our next visit, I'll give you our snake.
And for firestarter, register for something. Anything.