wimp

Ok - so I left off saying that we were trying a snake... sadly this went no where - well the snake did go down the hole but it did nothing to alleviate our problem. Today I called around and talked to a couple of plumbers and they said if it is just a clog we can do it ourselves. So at the end of my work day I rushed over to a plumbing store and bought the supplies. He tells me as I'm buying it that it is sulphuric acid that does the trick... sulphuric freakin' acid.... plus some enzyme that should be applied after...

Enter the wimpee part of me... I don't want to be burned, I don't sulphuric acid on me or splashing on my walls - who knows what could happen - plus I tell my Dad and he gets all - well you better be careful with that stuff and goes on and on about it... so I wimp out - tonight I'm wearing the gear to do it and decide to try the organic way first - so I put in baking soda and then some vinegar and blam-o I've got a volcano for a washer drain - great - so I re-snake it - hoping for the best - and it actually goes in easier than last night but then when it gets as far as it will go it spins in place - the snake twists and twists and then releases because it is bumping up to something - that something could be ice... it could be general laundry crap, it could be a build up of detergent from years and years ago - it could be something the furnace people put in there... it could be IT1 or IT2... it could be a rubber shoe....

So with little success with the snake or the volcano mixture - I try the enzyme - this is stuff that is potent but not sulphuric acid - it has to sit over night in the hole and with any luck - makes its way over to the problem and voila - unclogs the mess - if it is ice... well we've set up extra heat and hopefully it will unthaw over night... of course we are working against -29 right now - looking to -30's over night...

Within any luck my post tomorrow will be - hooray - it worked... but at this rate it is more likely that I will have won the lotto - and we all know the odds on that :)