The Letter U

So after weeks of having a toilet that clogged every time we used it my husband broke down and took the toilet apart. Last weekend we bought a snake at Home Depot and he spent an hour shoving it through the pipes and trying to clear the "rock" that we thought Gavin had flushed down it. It worked for awhile, so we thought the problem was fixed, but after a few flushes with toilet paper the clog returned. After dealing with this for weeks I had grown accustomed to plunging nasty poops a few times a day and throwing toilet paper in the waste basket. I felt like I was living in Mexico, since when you go to Mexico you may notice they all throw their TP in the trash so as not to clog the crappy plumbing system they have.

Now, today Jon "found the time" to try and use the snake one more time. He realized that it just wasn't working and unscrewed the toilet from the ground. I came home to my husband wearing purple latex gloves and hovering over our entire toilet on the ground in our backyard. I asked him if he had found the rock and he said, "It wasn't a rock, it was one of Gavin's magnetic letters, the letter U." I won't describe the nasty details but he said it was a very gross job pulling the U out. It was a purple one but I'm putting a picture of another U of a different color so you all can bask in its glory. Since it was a U shape some things were still able to flush down but it clogged very easily since it was making the hole a lot smaller in our pipes. When he tried to jam the snake down the pipes it actually bent one sides of the U down but still wasn't able to push it through.

You don't know how exciting it is to have a fully functional toilet. I had taken it for granted before, how easily it used to flush. I now stand over it and pause as I watch the water get sucked away and sigh a deep breath as it refills with clean water. My husband actually said he wished I had gotten Gavin cheaper made magnets so that it would have broken rather than bend when he tried to shove it through. I guess next time I buy a toy I might have to re-evaluate how easily flushable it is.