The Squamidian Report – Aug. 1 / 15
Issue #688
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Last Friday evening I was having a shower. As I showered, I could hear
the drain start to make gurgling sounds and then the water began to
back up into the bath tub. Bummer. Thats not supposed to happen. So,
when I got out of the tub, I decided to test the toilet to see if it
would drain. To be safe, I first turned off the supply line. Sure
enough, the level came way up and did not go down. We've had issues
with that toilet backing up for years and usually the backup would be
easily solved with a few quick plunges from a plunger. We therefore
tried plunging the toilet, to no avail. We tried plunging the tub, to
no avail. The water would go down, very slowly, over time but the
blockage wouldn't let go. I knew that the issue would be somewhere in
the piping under the floor which means its easily accessible overhead
in the 'rock room' if it needed to be opened up. I also knew that it
was not further along the main line than where it turns down the wall
because if it were, the laundry sink would have backed up.
However, neither our little plunger nor our little snake did any good
so there was no choice. We needed to call a plumber. Jammie lives way
too far away so that meant calling a local plumber and Squamish
businesses are not known for their customer service or competency.
Anyway, I put in a call to 3 local plumbing companies first thing
Saturday morning. To my surprise, we heard back for one of them within
about 15 minutes. (A week later we still have not heard from the
others). The guy asked what the issue was and said he'd be over
shortly. Half an hour later he was here. After looking over the layout
he agreed that the blockage must be in the main line, at one of the 90
degree elbows just before the main turns down toward the laundry room
level. Easy to get at but he didn't think it would be necessary to muck
with the drain pipes, he'd simply pull the toilet and run his snake in
from there. I never would have even thought of that. To me pulling a
toilet is a big job. And you can't snake through the trap built into
the base of a toilet because its bends are too short and tight so for
him that was a quick, easy solution. Once the toilet was out of the way
he brought in his big, commercial size powered snake and fed it down
the pipe. I went down into the rock room and could hear it move along
until it got to the second elbow, the one just before where the line
turns down the wall. The snake rattled around there for a moment and
then the blockage let go. He had run some water into the line and the
water created a pressure head that flushed the crud away. Problem
solved. He had the toilet back in place and connected in not time at
all. To me, that would have been half a day of cursing and running back
and forth to Canadian Tire for parts.
I had hoped a chunk of the blockage crud would have clung to the end of
his snake so we could identify what had blocked the line but the snake
came back clean, relatively speaking. The plumber suggested a possible
culprit. It would seem that ever since the local Walmart opened here
several years ago, toilets have been backing up, plumbing has been
getting blocked. It obviously has nothing to do with Walmart but rather
what customers are purchasing there. Everyone these days seems to want
that toilet paper that is extra soft and extra absorbent. The problem
is, that stuff does not break down into small peaces right away like
'normal' bum wad, instead, it swells up, and instead of easily passing
around plumbing elbows, it blocks them when used in sufficient
quantities. And because everyone wants the soft soothing bum
experience, Walmart consistently has that stuff on sale. The cause of
the epidemic in the local blockages has been solved. Now we just need
to stop using those particular products.
I know I've mentioned this a week or so ago, but I'm doing it again
now....how come it is hotter here than in Southern Ontario, but
Southern Ontario had been put under a heat alert this week but we have
not. And we've been several degrees hotter. Must be politics.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Hope you’re enjoying the fine summer weather we’re having since it took
so darned long to get here! I for one am refusing to complain about the
heat, I love it!
Carole’s cousin gave her a couple of raspberry plants a few years ago
and they’ve been multiplying ever since we planted them in one corner
of the yard. Last year Carole picked a good sized baggie over the
course of the summer and even had some new berries right into the fall.
This summer we’ve been picking loads of berries and so far have more
than we picked all last year’s growing season. She’s not sure what
she’s going to do with them yet but the freezer is keeping them well
preserved for when the decision is made! MMMMmmmm……! I actually have
been surprised how unprickly, if that’s a word, the bushes are as we
dive in to pick the berries. I’ve only had one bleeding slice in the
arm while retracting my arm from within the patch! I’m sure the results
will be well worth the odd ouchie I’ll have to bare to pick these red
beauties!
Two mornings ago I was woken up by a loud clanging and hammering out
behind our place. When I went out front to bring in the garbage pail
and recycle bins a little later in the morning I heard some more
banging and voices very clearly blabbering out back. I turned around to
face the house and noticed that there were four men in bright orange
shirts and helmets clinging to the very top few meters of the hydro
tower out behind the house. Of course that’s not all they were wearing
just to clarify, they were also wearing tan coloured pants! LOL! I
returned to the house and went out back onto the patio to see what they
were doing. A few months ago, there was a crew of men that arrived
early in the morning and spent the day dismantling a wooden house that
was built at the foot of the hydro tower to contain the cell phone
equipment installed there about 10 years ago. The house had been an
attraction for young kids to gather behind and smoke dope so it was
good to finally see it being demolished. Once the house and the
equipment inside were removed, all that was left were large black flex
cables clamped to the side of the tower to contain the wiring that
connected to the antennae at the top of the structure. The most recent
crew that I was watching the other day were sent over to dismantle the
reminder of the equipment for the now outdated cell phone receiving and
transmitting system. I guess even they get down sized and removed as
things modernize and miniaturize in today’s world of electronic
communications!
I laid on my back on a couple of cushions with my binoculars in hand
and watched as these experts climbed around up top of the 190 foot
tower like a family of skilled jungle monkeys! It was amazing to watch
them as they picked battery operated power tools from their orange
buckets that no doubt make the work a lot easier than in the old days
when this kind of work was done strictly by hand held manual wrenches.
The power tools such as impact wrenches and reciprocating saws are do
doubt heavier to handle but at least they accomplish the job in a
fraction of the time it would have taken using manual equipment. There
were four guys at the top and four more at the bottom of the tower on
the ground holding ropes that were eventually attached to the equipment
the upper workers were there to dismantle and the equipment was then
lowered by hand by the men on the ground. It was quite the site to see
all this heavy steel junk being lowered by one man on each line. I’m
sure the pulley system they used on the ropes gave them mechanical
advantage that made the weight of the steel being lowered seem more
like featherweights than heavy weights! The entire job took most of the
day and when the crew left, I noticed they had piled a large number of
plastic drinking bottles beside the sidewalk near the tower site. The
following morning I took one of our recycle bins and walked over to
pick up the bottles like any good citizen would do and to my surprise
they were gone. I guess they had come back in the morning before I was
out of bed and cleaned up their mess themselves. Nice to see that they
were conscientious enough to have returned for their droppings! The
afternoon of their workday had been spent unclamping and lowering those
200’ x 4” diameter black cables from the tower. They had arrived with a
large truck containing huge wooden reels on a flat bed. As they lowered
the cables from the tower they wound them onto the four reels like
fishing reels and I’m sure they’ll be used at another job somewhere in
the province! Nice to see that someone in the province has lots of
work!
*
Guess what, my neighbour finally cut his lawn and
actually cut it to the proper length for the first time in the 15 years
they’ve lived there. I’ve been living next door to 6 to 10 inches of
mostly weeds ever since this couple moved into the house and this is
the first time they’ve cut it properly. They are nice enough people but
just don’t seem to give a darn what the outside of their home and
property look like! They own two Midas Muffler shops in Mississauga so
they could easily afford to pay a landscape service to mow their lawn
once a week and also to tend to their flower gardens as well! Their
back yard hasn’t been cleaned up of branches, leaves and other yard
waste since a good five years ago when one of their teenaged boys
trimmed all their trees and shrubs and raked their leaves into piles in
the middle of their tiny yard. I’m sure the debris they have piled
there is attracting wildlife and vermin from the wilds of the hydro
right of way out back! I wouldn’t doubt they’ll find some ugly
creatures hiding and living in the piles when they finally do decide to
clean it up. They had a company come in the other day and install a new
furnace. The wife of the couple told me the other night that the
furnace was original and it was falling over from the bottom rusting
out! I shudder to think what the rest of their house looks like inside.
Oh yes, I did see “The Brick” deliver a new stove the same day as the
furnace job was done and when the furnace guy was finished he used his
dolly to haul the old stove from inside their house out into their
garage. The whole side of the stove was rusted out as I watched him
move it up the driveway. What the hell are these people living in
anyway? WOW! Guess some people just don’t have any pride in their
living conditions! There is one sign of improvement in the near future,
I happened to bump into the wife yesterday and she told me they are
moving next spring to Mississauga so her husband Joy (they are Indian)
can be closer to his work! Sounds like they’re fixing up the place so
it’ll at least be sellable when next spring rolls around and they give
Remax a call! Here’s hoping they sell it to a nice family that’ll have
some pride in where and how they live!
That’s enough for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in
public!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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